Cosequences
by Hachichi the Medic
Summary: Sequel to "Yin and Yang." Nothing's without a consequence. And when you suddenly have a super soldier on your team, you might draw some unwanted attention from some mysterious and potentially harmful enemies.
1. Chapter 1

A Sequel to "Yin and Yang"

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUGUST 3, 2008

Chapter 1:

It was an incredibly warm day in Tokyo, and horribly humid. The cicadas were humming, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Aside from the heat, it was a gorgeous day.

"Stupid FROG!" Natsumi punted Keroro across the living room and growled, stomping over to him after he landed. "What did you think you were doing?!"

It was gorgeous, aside from the failed invasion and the abuse that followed.

It had been so simple, in theory. Send Pekopon into another ice age. They just hadn't counted on the machine overheating and exploding. Kirere had only begun to make her repairs when Natsumi walked in on them, having smelt fire and smoke.

"...Pekopon witch! I'll have my revenge," Keroro grumbled and stood up. "After I finish mopping."

"Ku kuku! Well, that didn't go as planned," Kururu glanced at the screen and gave a laugh, and Kirere looked up sorrowfully at the machine she and Kururu had worked so hard on, a wrench thrown right into the middle of it. "At least it was interesting, ku ku!"

"I almost had it finished, too," Kirere sighed in defeat, and her shoulders slumped. She hadn't exactly wanted a frozen Pekopon, but it was her best work yet.

"Back to the drawing board, ku ku ku!" Kururu laughed and headed back to his chair, and hopped up in it. "...I don't need you here. You can go play."

She knew this meant to leave him alone for the rest of the day, and she did just that, knowing better than to argue.

Keroro was doing the dishes when she reached the Hinata's level, Dororo was nowhere to be seen, and Tamama was at his home. That left her Giroro to bother.

She found him sitting on one of the cinder blocks outside his tent, polishing one of his knives. She grinned devilishly and began to stalk towards him, and was nearly ready to grab him around the neck when she suddenly found herself lifted off the ground and flipped, and a few moments later she was looking up at Giroro, who was upside down. It was apparent after a few moments that she was the one upside down.

Giroro continued to hold her by the one leg, and Kirere felt the blood quickly rushing to her head. She laughed and kicked a little, and he gave a grin and set her back down on the ground.

She rocked back, lifting her legs and tail over her head, then rocked forward and jumped up, attempting to land on her feet but only falling on the ground forward.

She gave a yelp, and Giroro began to lean forward to lift her up, but she managed to sit up, and wiped off her face, "I've still got a lot of work to do, huh?"

"The galactic railways weren't built in a week," Giroro answered with a sigh, and folded his arms. "It took me a longer time to sense your presence this time, you're getting better slowly but surely."

Kirere smiled at this and took a seat next to him, and remained there a few moments, silent and expecting. Giroro noticed this, and looked over to her, "You're not going to stop staring at me until I take you, are you?"

She only answered with an even wider, excited smile, and he sighed and stood, "It will make some good training exercise for me, I suppose."

So he packed a small bag for training equipment, and he and Kirere were off to the junkyard.

"Take a water bottle, a good soldier knows when to stay hydrated!" Giroro said sternly as he tossed her a water bottle. She took a few steps back, nearly falling over as she caught it, and took off running without another word.

Giroro could hear her rummaging through the old machine parts, and gave a small, proud smile. She would make a fine invader yet.

It had been three months since Kirere had come to live in the Hinata household, and she'd managed to find her own place within the ranks.

Keroro saw her as a form of amusement and occasionally a shield when trying to dodge Natsumi's wrath. Tamama saw her as an opponent, and they had formed a sort of sibling rivalry. Dororo saw her as he saw all children, a precious gift to the earth; he either didn't realize her horrible crush or was too embarrassed to comment on it. Kururu saw her as an extra set of hands, mainly, but Giroro couldn't help but to think he'd taken a bit of a interest to the girl, as well.

Giroro thought of her as... Well, it was difficult. It wasn't exactly at a father-daughter level... He felt more like an uncle to her.

He went through his training exercises for the next few hours, reliving his training and past battle situations, and running through the junkyard, occasionally checking in on Kirere.

By the time he went to fetch her, the water bottle had been used, and she was at work on yet another creation. Again he wasn't sure what it was, but at its base it had once been an oven.

"Come on, let's go. You're a mess."

"You, too," she laughed, noting he was also covered in dirt and grease, from his training. He only placed a hand on her head, and they both climbed on his hovercraft, and they headed back to the house.

"Ku ku! Looks like you've been having fun," Kururu commented as she walked into the lab, still covered in dirt. "Clean up before you eat, and don't leave a ring around the tub."

Kirere gave a nod at this, and then after washing off joined Kururu for dinner, which was their usual curry.

She sat at the foot of his chair, watching the numerous screens as he took care of some work on the computer. She looked upward at him, the spoon still in her mouth, and he felt a chill after a few moments of ignoring her.

"W-what do you want?" the pure blue eyes were piercing right through the wicked hacker.

"I started to make an engine today!" she began happily, and it was like opening the floodgates. She kept talking, and talking, and talking about this.

"...I'm not paying attention to any of this," Kururu even threw in halfway through her conversation, but this didn't seem to bother her.

"So what sort of stuff did you make at my age?" she finished off as she also finished her dinner, and set the plate down on the floor while awaiting his answer.

"Mischief ku ku," he answered dully, tapping a few more keys and then turning his attention back to his own plate of curry.

"How about Giroro-san?"

"I didn't know him," Kururu answered abruptly. "I'm too busy for small talk."

"Some other time then," she stood and took her plate.

"More than likely, no," was Kururu's only answer, and Kirere smiled in return. Kururu's one eye twitched a bit; either she was playing a very advanced game of wits with him, or the paint she had eaten as a child had disrupted her rational thought.

"Ugh..." Giroro walked out into the kitchen with a towel over his shoulders and wiped the excess water off of his face, and found Natsumi doing dishes. She was also smiling, and singing lightly a bit to herself.

"Oh, hey, Giroro!" she beamed as she looked down at him. "You look like you got a lot of training in today."

"Um, yes," Giroro nodded, all while a bit confused and flustered at the smile she gave him.

"I just got off the phone with Mama... We're going to go visit Oba-chan this weekend!"

"W-what? That's some good news," Giroro nodded. Natsumi, at the river, in a bathing suit... His mind trailed off a bit.

"I'l have to write it down of the calendar!" she gasped suddenly, turning to leave the sink.

"Eh, I've got it," Giroro answered, walking over to the said calendar and frowning at the post-it notes covering the said weekend. 'Tape Admiral Geroro Special'.

"Idiot. Like he really needs a note to remind himself of his frivolous hobbies," Giroro snorted, lifting the post-it to write upon the calendar. Instead, his mouth dropped open, and the pen slipped from his hand as he read upon the red-lettered scrawl, his own handwriting, with hearts around it, Kirere's doing.

Garuru was coming to pick up his niece that same weekend.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

"Hrm..." Garuru looked at the two photos, and studied them for a long while. One was of Giroro, the other of a pink Keronian he had known was in their neighborhood on Keron. She didn't seem quite right, either. He tossed this photo aside, and picked up another from the "to go through" stack.

Finding out exactly who the mother of his niece was was becoming a bit of a morbid hobby of his. Hopefully he would be able to squeeze it out of her over the weekend and allow his mind to rest.

Pururu knocked on the door and poked her head in, "We're almost there, did you have any other orders?"

Garuru set the photos down on the table and rose, "Check once more to make sure everything sharp is out of reach. I'll go down to greet them."

"I really don't need a sweater, Giroro-san," Kirere grumbled as he tossed it in her suitcase. He didn't seem to pay attention to her, and instead pulled open another dresser drawer, frantic to make sure that she did indeed have everything she needed.

"Those spaceships get cold," was his only answer as he picked up a notebook, covered in stickers, and stopped, studying its cover.

"DON'T open that!" she jumped off of the bed and pried it out of his hands. She placed it right on top of the suitcase and then shut the suitcase, sitting atop it with her arms folded.

"Ku kuku! So you have your own secrets..." Kururu chuckled as he walked in on the two and remained in the open doorway. "Just like your father, kuku!"

"Here, take this," Giroro said after a moment's thought, and passed her a large hunting knife. She only looked at him with disbelief, and his voice faltered. "The blade's too small, isn't it?"

"I have everything I need!" she snapped, pulling the suitcase off of the bed and meeting her eyes with his.

"Kukuku! A few stubborn ones we have here," Kururu took a few steps forward and looked over to Giroro.

"What do you want, anyway? You don't seem like the type to help with this," Giroro gave Kururu a critical look, and Kururu only gave another chuckle.

"I'm not helping, that's not in my character, kukuku!" Kururu answered, and turned to Kirere. "Give me that bracelet of yours for a second. Kuku, don't give me that look, I already know what's in it."

She frowned and flushed at this, and passed the bracelet off to Kururu, who stuck what looked like a small red button on it.

"It's to clear Senpai's nerves," Kururu answered as she took the bracelet back and fixed it onto her wrist.

"That's really sweet of you, what's it do?" Kirere asked as she poked at it.

"Tch! I don't do sweet!" Kururu huffed. "And that doesn't matter. It won't hurt you in any way."

"You don't do sweet?" Giroro reiterated, glancing to Kururu.

"I could go back and give it an electric shock if you're not happy," Kururu answered.

"Why's there another stupid spaceship outside!?" came Natsumi's bellow from outside the room.

"Ku ku! Your ride's here," Kururu laughed, following both the excited Kirere and anxious Giroro outside.

"Now remember what we talked about," Giroro began as they headed to the backyard.

"No telling them my other dad's a pasty jerk," Kirere answered. "Got it. And no going into detail about anything we do here. Ojisan!"

"U-uncle?!" Giroro choked as she ran over to Garuru.

"She'll have a good weekend learning how a real platoon functions," Garuru answered as she stood beside him. Giroro grit his teeth at this, and Garuru only continued. "She's in good hands."

"Shame he can't take her the full week," Kururu muttered.

"IDIOT!" Giroro came down on Kururu's head with his fist as Garuru transported back up to the ship with Kirere. He then looked back up, and saw Kirere waving down to him, and he only gave a nod.

"Pupupu! So he's bringing a kid on board?" Tororo leaned forward and took another bite of his pizza as he watched from his screen. "...This ought to be some fun for me!"

"This is our base of operations," Garuru had taken one of her bags and was leading her down a long hall. Kirere looked about in every direction, never having been on such a clean-looking, uniform ship before. "I'd prefer it if you didn't touch anything without first asking. You'll be staying with Chief Medic Pururu for the time."

"...This place is shiny," she muttered. Garuru was a bit amused by this, and nodded.

"Oh! This must be Kirere-chan!" Taruru turned the corner and gave an enthusiastic grin. "Aw, you're adorable!"

"Chief Mechanic Kirere," she answered flatly as he bent down and patted her head.

"Ah! Sensei told me about you! You're full of energy in potential, but you haven't harnessed any of it! You only seem to excel in mechanics, and, and..." Garuru's silent glare spoke on levels to Taruru. "...I'm going to go check the ship's stats."

"Very wise," Garuru answered, and led the young girl to Pururu's room. "Are you all right?"

"...I can do more than work on machines, I'm good at puzzles, too!" Kirere shouted. "I'm really good at them! I even beat Kururu Soucho at chess once! And he never lets me win anything!"

"...It's good someone knows how to put him in his place," was Garuru's only comment as he stopped in front of Pururu's door. She opened it and smiled, looking down at the little girl cheerfully.

"I'm sure you're going to have a great time here," Pururu took the bag for Garuru, and Kirere returned the friendly smile.

"Pupupu! We'll see," Tororo was already at work in his own room. "Why's that brat bunking with Pururu, anyway? Hrm... No matter, pu pu...Good at puzzles? I might actually have some use for this one!"

"Giroro, this isn't like you... I would've thought you'd be gone by now, too," Natsumi took a seat with him on the open porch of her grandmother's home and smiled. Giroro was leaned back against on of the doorways, his arms folded across his chest and his expression anxious. "...She'll be fine, you know. She's learned from living with you idiots how to take care of herself."

"I know she does, it's just..."

"You miss her. I never thought I'd see you so worried over a girl, of all things, Giroro!" Natsumi laughed. "It just doesn't seem like you."

She didn't know that side of him, then, he thought with a tinge of heartache. He remained there, looking out to the forest. Keroro had gone off hiking with Fuyuki, while Tamama was off to do some training. He should have been training as well, he knew, but his mind kept trailing off, wondering exactly how she was doing.

"So then Keroro-kun realized that the shell still had something living in it, and... And... Well, he, Dororo-kun, and Giroro-kun were all in the hospital for a few days," Pururu finished with a laugh as she sat on the floor, Kirere across from her.

"That's so neat, Giroro-san would never let me do something like that on my own!"

"You call him Giroro-san? Why not Dad, or Papa?" Pururu tilted her head to one side, and noted Kirere's expression. "I... I'm sorry, Kirere-chan. Did I say...?"

"Nah, I guess I just don't know how to start," Kirere admitted. "...I'd sound weird, and I'm afraid he'd be a little mad about it."

"Not the Giroro-kun I know," Pururu shook her head. "He's only tough on the outside."

"Yeah! That's him!" Kirere nodded. "...So... Why don't he and Ojisan get along anymore?"

"Well... I don't know if that's my story to tell. I don't know all the facts either, actually," Pururu admitted. "Maybe Giroro-kun will let you know someday... I don't think he'd get mad, he's not the type."

"He gets mad and Kero-san a lot."

"He gets frustrated by him," Pururu corrected her. "That goes really far back."

"Pururu-san. Is Kirere in there?" Garuru's knock came on the door, and Pururu rose, taking Kirere's hand.

"We'll talk more later. It's good to have a little girl company every once in a while," Pururu opened the door, and Kirere walked out, Garuru looking down at her with his usual sober expression.

"I figured... You'd want something to eat," Garuru said with a bit of hesitation, as if trying to think of the words. She lit up at this and followed him down to the ship's kitchen, where Tororo was in the food storage, his hands already full of snacks.

"What do you think you're doing? I gave you a job to complete!" Garuru said in a snap to the young Keronian.

"Yeesh, I'm not a machine, I have to eat! I'm getting back right now," Tororo said with a sigh, and looked over his pile of food to Kirere. He wasn't sure why, but just looking at her filled him with... Extreme hatred. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about her just annoyed him. "So who's the new kid?"

"Kirere. And this here, Kirere, this is our youngest recruit, Tororo," Garuru answered, turning to the young girl. "You two aren't that far apart in age, really."

"Maybe we could play a little later," Kirere said with a smile.

"Pupupu!" Tororo got a laugh out of this. "I've got an actual job, thanks." He would have continued, but the glare Garuru gave him signaled for him to stop, at least until Garuru was out of range, "Pupupu... Maybe later."

Kirere had a certain feeling of uneasiness as she sat while Garuru rummaged through the refrigerator. They were nice, aside from Tororo, who seemed to hate her for no reason, and Taruru, who she thought was a bit weird. They weren/t the Keroro platoon, however. She missed them, she realized. She even missed Tamama snidely remarking how much she looked like a little boy or caused the team nothing but trouble. He only did it to keep up their competitive spirit.

It struck her as Garuru laid the plate of food down in front of her; she was homesick already.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

"Tch!" Kururu searched his worktable for the screwdriver, and his eerie smile turned downward a bit. It was nowhere to be seen. "You. Get me..."

But there was no one there. Mois was watching the house... The rest of the fools were out visiting relatives. He should have been on cloud nine. There was no one to bother him, no one going up to sneak attack a hug on him, and playing loud pop music while he was trying to relax or work.

He should've been thrilled by the silence. But it made it harder to work. He found the screwdriver beneath the workbench, then plugged in his MP3 player into his headphones, and resumed his tinkering.

Kirere sat in silence, forcing down the sukiyaki Garuru had given her. Garuru had been taken aback by her request for hotsauce, and had watched, bewildered, as she dumped out a quarter of the bottle right onto her meal. But she ate it without breaking a sweat, much less reaching for her water. It was almost painful to watch.

Maybe small talk could get his mind off of the painful endeavor, "So what do you... Do... When you're not training?"

"I go to the junkyard," she answered brightly.

"A Pekopon trash heap?"

"Not really. They throw away a lot of stuff that's still really useful, they just don't know to add it together! ...I like watching music videos, too," she added, finishing her food and pushing the bowl inward to the table. "That was really good, thanks!" she added with a lie. If they had not had hotsauce, she would've been unable to eat it at all for sure.

'That's not from my side of the family, that's for certain,' Garuru thought to himself, a little relieved as she finally took a sip of her juice.

"So, your captain... He's competent?"

"Kero-san's really good at what he does!" Kirere answered, not delving into the fact that most of what Keroro did was make Gunpla and enact out scenes that involved him dressing up as Char.

'That was quick. Someone prepped her,' Garuru stood, taking their plates with him, and he then stopped, placing a hand over one ear. "Eh. I have a situation on deck, would you mind amusing yourself for the time being?"

"Okay, I'll head back to Pururu-san's," Kirere slid off the seat, and was just about to do that when halfway down the hall she became aware of another door, one that was open only by a crack. It was the dim lighting and the lone glowing red dot that attracted her to it. She hopped off the moving walkway and peered in.

"...Hello?"

"I'm sure Kirere-chan's around here somewhere," Pururu insisted as Garuru rushed down the hall, poking his head into every door.

"Taruru, give me an update!"

"Um, I see no signs down here... Shouldn't I be..."

"Then try the next floor," answered Garuru. Both he and Pururu stopped as they heard a laugh, from the last room where they'd expect to hear one.

"Gotcha!" Kirere called, and gave a grin. Zoruru's expression remained stationary as always, and he merely made his next move on the chessboard with his good hand.

"Taruru, we found her. Get back to work," Garuru instructed. Taruru gave a groan; he was getting pulled in all sorts of directions today. "I told you to go to Pururu-san's room."

"He was trying to fix his arm but couldn't reach a spot, so I helped him, then I wanted to play chess."

"The child isn't bad, Chuii," Zoruru admitted.

"...I'll play you next," Garuru said after looking over the board and studying it in his mind. Very interesting.

"Pupupu, yeah, you keep having your cute summer comedy drama, kid. Puuupupupu!" Tororo laughed from the annuls of his computer room.

She ended up winning the game against Zoruru, much to the cyborg's suprise. The game with Garuru went in her favor for a while, but in the end he won. Four hours later.

During this, Pururu and Zoruru had both retired to their quarters, silently relieved as the game moved into the kitchen. After the chess match, Garuru left his niece in front of Pururu's door.

"Good game. You don't give up easily," Garuru nodded. "That's admirable, but not knowing when to quit can be your downfall, too. Now don't go off exploring like that again."

Kirere nodded, still a bit upset at losing the game, and hadn't placed her hand on the door when she became aware of a presence. Some sort of a dark aura. She looked to her left, and saw it wasn't Garuru standing next to her anymore, but Tororo.

"You're still awake?" Kirere asked aloud in disbelief.

"Yes, well... I keep odd hours."

"Lucky. I have a bedtime."

"Because you're just a kid," Tororo laughed. "Not even an official soldier. Even I outrank you, pupupu!... So, did you still want to play for a while, since we're both still up? You seem to really enjoy games."

"Sure!" she lit up immediately. "Do you like chess?"

"It's okay if you're into those sorts of things," Tororo shrugged. "I try not to waste my intelligence on something so pointless generally, though."

"So what's your game, then?" she followed him down the hall, and he only gave a laugh.

Giroro bolted up in the middle of the night, knocking right into Keroro, who only and lifted his head up and stared at the corporal with mild annoyance.

"Did something bite you, Giroro Goucho?" Keroro yawned.

"No... Just... A jolt, I suppose," Giroro answered, and laid back down on the hay pallet that had been made for them. What he didn't know at that moment was Kururu had awoken suddenly, resulting in a tumble out of his hammock.

"So what's this game, anyway?" Kirere looked about at the numerous screens, taken aback by how much information was floating all around them. It was a much smaller room than Kururu's, and much, much messier. The boy loved his junk food, that was for sure. Tororo turned around and gave another laugh.

"Pupupu! Well, let's say I've got a little surprise ready for an enemy of mine. I've been working on it for months now!"

"What? An enemy? Oh, like someone you play with online, on a video game?!"

"Sort of," Tororo looked off ward. "Someone I've got an old score to settle with, pupupupu! We're going to cause a little bit of trouble for him."

"...Sounds a little mean..."

"With what he did to me!?" Tororo snarled. "...I need an extra pair of hands, and you'll have to do. Unless you're not bright enough, that is."

"...You're not going to hurt this guy, right?"

"Nope, just play a few pranks. Nothing he doesn't deserve," he chuckled and sat down at his keyboard, and handed her a laptop. "Don't break that, it's worth more than the crummy allowance I'm sure you get. We're going to start with the firewalls."

"...NEH!?" Kururu again fell out of his hammock, almost instantly after settling back down into it, and gave a grumble. "Ku ku! This again?"

But this time something was different. There were red flashing lights all about him, and warning screens on many of his computers. He rushed over to his main chair to see just what was going on.

Someone was trying to get into his system. And they were doing a damn fine job getting through his security. Kururu gave an annoyed grunt, and went to work holding the system intrusion back.

"Puuuupupupu! How're you doing? Do you have that number yet?!" Tororo looked over his shoulder to Kirere, who now had a laptop of her own.

"I stink at math, I can't get this!"

"It's nothing to do with math, it's thinking about what combination he could have to unlock his system," Tororo answered. "Or are you too dim to realize that?"

Kirere's teeth clenched a bit, and she began to pound harder upon the keys. It wasn't too different from fixing something, really. Finding out what went in which place, and putting it where it belonged, and seeing what happened.

"YES!" Tororo gave a wild laugh as the last firewall was disabled, and he found he had full access to Kururu's computers once more.

The same screen came up on Kirere's computer, and she yelped as she immediately recognized the icons and the file names, "W-wait, this is..."

"Exaclty!" Tororo laughed, and Kirere stood and tossed aside the laptop, and tugged on his arm.

"Wait! You can't! This is..."

"Out of the way!" Tororo snapped, pushing her back. "It's your fault, anyway! If you weren't so stupid you would've figured it out already!"

Then he felt a dark, heavy presence behind him, after a period of silence. His typing slowed, then stopped. Instead of fighting him, she'd gone completely silent. His typing came to a halt, and she slowly turned around, totally encompassed by a dark, dark shadow.

"Don't... Call me... Stupid!" in a rare aligning of emotions, Kirere's Kururu pride met with her Giroro temper, and Tororo took a computer monitor to the face.

Kururu, meanwhile, was puzzled, having seen the invasion suddenly stop. They'd managed to get full access, as well as some of his files, but the sudden stopping of all activity worried him a bit. He took the opportunity relax a bit, and to set up all of his firewalls once more, and do an inventory of what exactly had been taken. He was less than pleased to see Kirere's file completely copied.

"...I found her blacked out, and he was like that when I came to check on him," Taruru explained, scratching the back of his head as he looked over the bizarre sight. Kirere had fainted, and the heavy computer monitor still lay on Tororo's face. Pururu pulled it off, and knelt down to check on him, while Garuru lifted up the little girl into his arms.

"Ugh... Megane... Megane!" Tororo muttered, feeling about for a pair of glasses to replace the smashed pair. He found a pair among the wrappers, and pointed at Kirere. "That little brat! He's the one who did that to me!"

"He?" Pururu stood and blinked.

"Kirere-chan is Garuru Chuii's niece," Taruru added.

"Wha... What?" Tororo's hand fell. He'd had his ass handed to him by a GIRL?

He was filled with rage for a moment, visibly shaking, but then while looking at her, glaring, Tororo saw her open her eyes slowly... They were a pretty nice shade of blue.

"Huh?" Taruru noted the changing expression on Tororo's face, then looked over at Kirere, and back at Tororo. "...Oh!"

"I'm going to take her to get some rest. If I find out you did something to her, Tororo, you're going to be lucky if I kill you," Garuru announced, shuffling through the old wrappers and out of Tororo's computer room. Pururu gave a little giggle as she looked once more at Tororo, and she led Taruru out.

"A girl... Beat me up... A girl," Tororo muttered numbly, and was left there, sitting alone to let this sink in. "A girl... Beat me up!"

"Eh...?" Kirere lifted her head and yawned, and was surprised by the sudden change of scenery. She was in a room, except it wasn't Pururu's, or Zoruru's, or any she'd been in before. It was dim, and she only saw a set of yellow eyes at first, and jerked back.

Garuru looked up from his book and pulled out his earbud headphones, and glanced to the child, "Good to see you're awake. We found you fainted in Tororo Shinpei's room."

"...I can explain, I-"

"I have no interest in knowing," Garuru answered, and stood. "Come on. Are you well enough to walk?"

"Yeah," she nodded, and hopped off the bed, and followed Garuru down the long hall, and up an elevator, and down through some more rooms, until she had no idea where they were anymore.

"What's this...?" then Kirere stopped, aware of the towering window at the end of the room. "...Wow!"

Garuru calmly walked over to the window, while Kirere ran forward full force, and pressed her face against the window to get a better look at the surrounding blackness around her.

"Up there is Keron," Garuru pointed upward and right, and Kirere followed his hand, then turned her attention back to the rest of the pitch-black space. "...It's quite far from Pekopon."

"Oh! What's that over there? Is that another planet?!"

"That's a ball of garbage," Garuru said with a cough.

"What about that?"

Garuru gave a small sigh. It was only space, but the girl seemed suddenly excited, as if seeing it for the first time. Then it struck him that it probably was her first time seeing it and being able to remember it. She ran down to the other end of the window to see if she could see anything different, and gave a small gasp of awe.

"I can still see Pekopon from here!" she called out, turning to him. "...Wow, it's really pretty..."

"I guess that's one word for it," Garuru muttered, joining her at the window.

"...Why don't you get along with your brother?"

Talk about a change of pace; the child had the attention span of Keroro. The question did catch him pretty off-guard, though, "...It's a long story, and boring."

"Oh," Kirere nodded, and looked back out to the black void surrounding them.

There was a silence between them, then Garuru's shoulders relaxed a bit, "Just learn from it, and make sure you get along better with your siblings, all right?"

"Yeah," she answered, giving a smile and a nod.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Giroro tapped his foot as he now had switched porches, from Akina Hinata's to the Hinata household's. They were running late. Why of all times would someone like Garuru be late? He was doing it on purpose, he was playing another head-game, and Giroro just knew it. He remained in his stationary position, and only turned his head and he heard a small bump, followed by an aggravated grunt.

"What're you doing out, here, and at this hour? Don't you usually wake up when the sun's a lot closer to setting?" Giroro said as Kururu adjusted the chair he had bumped into.

"Kukuku, there were problems at the office last night," Kururu walked into the kitchen, and opened the refrigerator.

"They're running late," Giroro grumbled, glancing at the clock. Kururu lazily walked over, one arm full of vegetables, and pulled out his white remote, holding it down to Giroro's level. "What's this?"

"A tracker... Kukuku, looks like they've entered out atmosphere," Kururu took another look at it and then took up the vegetables he had collected from the vegetable bin. "I'm going to start on dinner."

"You're not going to stay and wait for her?"

"She knows where to find me," Kururu answered dully, and with that left.

"G-Giroro Goucho, you make it hard to sweep when you don't move from your corner," Keroro appeared next to the corporal, and poked Giroro gently with the end of his broom. Giroro only gave a growl in response, and Keroro gave a nervous laugh. "I'll go start on the dishes."

"Finally," Giroro hopped off of his perch as he heard the front doorbell. He jumped up to open it, and sure enough, there was Kirere at the door with her bags, and Garuru standing behind her.

"Did you have a good time?" Giroro asked the little girl, who nodded at this.

"She liked being around people of her intelligence level for a change, and seeing how a functional platoon works," Garuru answered. "Here she is, safe as I promised."

"He said I could come back again!" Kirere added.

"Go inside and unpack your bags. Say goodbye to your uncle, first,' Giroro instructed. Kirere did just that and disappeared, leaving an obvious tenseness between the two brothers. "...You have her home in one piece, that's some good news."

"She can come visit around Pekopon's wintertime as well, we have some downtime around then. Or maybe I'll come visit, I have some vacation time saved up, considering how my last one was cut short," Garuru announced. Giroro only gave a grunt at this, and nodded. Garuru returned this, and beamed himself back up to his ship.

"...Hrm. Pekopon winter, eh? When is that?" Tororo muttered from deep inside his computer room, not paying any mind to check the files he'd collected from Kururu's computer the night before. More rather, the hard blow to the head had made him forget that he'd gotten anything from there at all, "...Pupupu... We'll have round two, then."

Garuru, meanwhile, went right back to work, looking to see exactly what Tororo had been up to the night before. It wasn't so hard to find the little hacking monster's trail, and he wasn't the least bit surprised to see he'd been trying to hack into the Keroro Platoon's system.

"Hrm," he did see a few newly-downloaded files that caught his eye. A super-weapon? He made sure he was alone on the bridge, then opened up the file.

'Genetic alterations? What're they letting him get away with?' Garuru wondered as he scanned through the files. He then stopped dead, and read over the summary paragraph. He then read over it once, twice, five times more to make sure he was reading it correctly.

"Garuru Chuii! What're you reading, our new orders?" Taruru asked with his usual grin as he now entered the bridge.

"Nothing important," Garuru shut down the file and prompted began its permanent deletion. "I was sent some pictures of my niece."

"Oh, all right! Your parents are probably wondering now when you're going to give them one, huh? Considering you're the older brother and all! It's kinda like he's finally beat in you in something, huh?" Taruru said jokingly. From the death-glare Garuru gave, it was apparent that this had indeed taken place. "...I'll get back to my post."

"That'd be the intelligent thing to do," Garuru answered, then rested his hands on the keyboard, and thought for a long, long while. He would say nothing of this.

"Gero gero! So I see we have Chief Mechanic Kirere back with us! Excellent!"

"Gunso-san? What happened to your arm?" Tamama pointed to the sling Keroro's left arm was in, and Keroro gave an uneasy chuckle at this.

"Oh, it's but a sprain, Tamama Nitohei. When Kirere-chan arrived home yesterday morning, she decided to surprise me with a hello. Unfortunately I was on a ladder at the time, trying to put a heavy jar onto a high shelf."

Tamama looked over at Kirere with a glare. She stuck out her tongue at this, and Tamama returned this gesture. Giroro nudged Tamama lightly in the gut with his elbow, and then with just a look Kirere stopped, and turned her attention back to the picture she was drawing.

"...Ehehehe..." Keroro laughed at this gesture weakly. "Getting back to things, our newest Pekopon invasion strategy! Now with our group fully assembled, our plans can come to fruition!"

"Hrm? You sound more focused than usual," Giroro looked upward at Keroro, his curiosity piqued.

"I like to call this little beauty Operation Manipulate Pekopon's Buying Masses!"

"Could you say, hitting them right at the wallet?" Mois suggested with a grin.

"Kukuku! Teicho is venturing out into the business world? I'm intrigued," Kururu chuckled from his corner, and Kirere looked up from her drawing long enough to see Keroro's wide, proud grin.

"An episode of Admiral Geroro, on average, consists of twenty-four wonderful, action-packed, drama-filled minutes," as Keroro explained a screen came up behind him, showing stills from Admiral Geroro as he spoke. "Twenty-four minutes, and it has a half-hour long slot. Some shows run for only twenty-two minutes nowadays! So how is the rest for the time used?"

"Oh! I know! Commercials!" Tamama gasped.

"Exactly! And the more clever the commercial, the more intent someone becomes on buying the said items! I myself found myself so entranced by an ad during last week's episode, I took the next possible opportunity to head to the store and buy three Admiral Geroro figurines!"

"Idiot! You don't need to watch a commercial to fuel your impulse buys!"

"Perhaps Teicho-dono is hitting upon a point, as much as I hate to admit it," Dororo finally spoke up. Kirere watched this the entire time, and looked over at Tamama as he now spoke.

"What're we going to market, anyway?"

"...Um..." Keroro stopped at this point, and a silence went through the room. "...Well... That's where my inspiration hit the proverbial wall, and I was hoping we could figure that out as a group, as a sort of team-building activity!"

"You haven't thought it out that far...?" Giroro grit his teeth together.

"Hey, it's been a while since we've had a round table! All right, Giroro Goucho, off to you! What do you think we could market to Pekoponian masses?"

"...H-how should I know!?" Giroro snapped. "Don't go passing the ball to me!"

"K-Kururu Soucho?"

"Kuuukukuku!"

"Eh?" Keroro then looked to Tamama, Dororo, and Kirere, and then to Mois. Blank faces all around. "...I think we need a field trip."

"Hrm, so why here of all places again?" Giroro wondered aloud. All were dressed in their Pekoponian suits now, later that same day, and they had come to a busy Tokyo department store. Keroro's Pekoponian suit's left arm was also in a sling, as he couldn't use the control to work this arm.

A woman pulled out a screaming toddler behind as they exited, and Giroro got the smug satisfaction of knowing his child knew better. Kururu only gave a laugh.

"It's a shame Kii-chi couldn't come with us," Tamama muttered, although any sorrow was completely fake. He had gloated the fact that she would have to stay at the base, due to the fact that all of the Pekoponian suits were too large for her.

"Kuku! Who said she didn't?" as Kururu spoke another person came through the sliding department store doors, this one with her arms extended, at a full run. She gave a large and wrapped her arms around Giroro's neck, nearly sending the stunned Corporal to the ground.

"W-what the!?" Tamama looked across, wide-eyed at the sight of this.

"Kururuko?" Keroro blinked, looking down at the familiar orange-haired "girl".

"Guess again!" she jumped up and gave a wide, unforced grin.

"You... You're joking," Tamama muttered, his arms falling loosely to their sides.

"I made a few... Kukuku!... Adjustments to this model," Kururu said with a chuckle, and indeed he had. The head was basically the same, except the expression was a sincerely cheery one, and the outfit was completely different. Gone was the magical girl outfit, replaced by a familiar-looking girl's school uniform.

"It's really cute, right?" Kirere laughed, and Giroro now noticed the even stranger looks they were garnering. "Kuru-san let me borrow it!"

"Kuku! It was gathering dust," Kururu added.

"Y-Yes, let's focus on the operation, though," Giroro tried to retain his composure while she remained clutching onto one of his hands. Kururu had probably fed her sugar when he wasn't looking.

"So what do we have to do here?" Kirere stood back, her hands behind her back now.

"We're trying to see what sorts of wares Pekoponians are spending the most time shopping for," Dororo explained, a little shaken at how hyper the girl had become. She was probably just excited to be out in a place where she didn't have to hide for once, though, or as in previous occasions, pretend to be a doll that one of the others carried around.

"Gero gero..." I say we split up into teams and do our researching that way," Keroro explained. "I'll go with Tamama Nitohei."

Tamama's eyes shone at this thought, and he happily joined Keroro's side.

"I'll go with Dororo-kun," Kirere shot her hand up, and Giroro began to protest, but Dororo only gave a small laugh.

"She shouldn't be a problem. "I- W-wait, Kirere-chan!" Dororo called out as the young girl happily went running over to the tools section.

"I suppose that leaves us," Giroro grumbled.

"Ku ku!"

"We'll meet up in an hour," Keroro announced, and with that he and Tamama went off towards the clothing, while Kururu and Giroro went up to the next floor.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

"Wow! Look at all of this stuff! It's a little primitive, but there's so much of it!" Kirere gasped at the rows and rows of shiny tools. She looked at it like most other girls her age would look at a toy aisle.

"W-we really should be paying more attention to the mission, Kirere-chan!" Dororo chided gently, and the ninja yelped as Kirere turned around to him, a bow saw in her hands.

"Hey, buddy, watch your kid!" shouted one of the clerks. "This isn't a theme park!"

"I'm just babysitting her, really," Dororo answered in a weak tone. "K-Kiere-chan, put the sharp objects down, your... Fathers... Wouldn't like it."

The clerk glanced over to the young girl at the mention of "fathers", and then looked to Dororo, who placed a hand behind his head and gave what appeared to be a feigned smile from beneath the mask. The clerk shook his head and returned to work.

"Come on, let's see what they're buying," Dororo pulled her away from the tools gently and led her out of the tool department, much to Kirere's chagrin.

"Looks like there's more people outside than in here..." Kirere noted as she and Dororo headed to the front glass doors. He looked up and noted that there indeed were a lot of people across the street from the department store. In fact, there was a line going out the bookstore doors.

"The bookstore? It's always good to improve literacy," Dororo nodded sagely.

"Wonder what they're waiting for... Hey, there's a lot of people buying books, so we should check that out!"

"Well, I-Hrm? Fuyuki-dono? Momoka-dono?" Dororo recognized the two faces in the line, close to the front glass doors. "Perhaps we should go check it out."

Kirere nodded and ran out, dodging traffic the entire way while Dororo only looked onward, horrified. Kururu must have fed her something with sugar that morning. Coupled with the excitement of the "field trip" her excitement was understandable, but unnerving all the same.

"Kururu Soucho?" Fuyuki gasped as Kirere stopped in front of them, Dororo quickly catching up.

"No, not this time!" Kirere grinned, and Fuyuki's eyes grew as he placed the voice.

"Kirere-chan?"

'What the hell are these morons doing here!? I hope this is it for them!' Momoka thought to herself, but instead said. "Ehehe, what brings you out today?"

"We're-"

"Fuyuki-dono?!" the familiar scratchy, cheery voice; Momoka clenched her fists, and the vein on her forehead grew. All of them were there, from the depressed blue one to the creepy yellow one. Damn it to hell, her date was shot.

"Gunso! I didn't know you all were coming to the book signing, too!" Fuyuki said with a cheerful grin.

"Eh? Book signing?" Keroro wondered aloud, peering over the crowd on his tiptoes. He still couldn't get a good look at the table where the signing took place, however.

"Mm! Nicolas Kezanstav is here, in person!"

"I'm afraid I'm not familiar," Keroro admitted flatly.

"That's because it would require reading something without pictures. Kezanstav? That's not local," Giroro muttered.

"Well, he's not," Fuyuki answered. "He actually moved here a few years ago... He lives in Osaka, now, but he's doing a country-wide booking signing, and is here today!"

"It sounds like you're very excited to meet him, Fuyuki-dono!"

"He's the author of one of my favorite series on the occult, ever!" Fuyuki held up the book, which showed a cover of a rabid-looking yeti on it, with its claws outstretched and ready to kill while a group of peasants was in the background, looking terrified.

"...Kukuku! Looks pretty cheesy to me," Kururu admitted.

"Well, maybe this is something we could learn from. This heat, and yet people are waiting out in a line this long for one Pekoponian! He must have something worthwhile!"

"A yarn to spin," Giroro said underneath his breath. "...How pointless."

But they waited there, and their time came. At this point Tamama and Kirere had gotten bored, and were playing a game of "I spy"in the bookstore.

"I spy... Something... Orange and still acts like a boy, even if she looks like a girl!" Tamama called.

"And I spy something that's black, short, and annoying!" Kirere snapped back.

"Knock it off," Giroro snapped, putting an immediate halt to their game. "Keroro, aren't you worried that he'll see something's amiss when we get up there?" Giroro whispered to Keroro after the two silenced. Keroro merely looked over to Giroro and laughed.

"Relax, Red Dharuma!" Keroro waved his hand flippantly. "I've seen these conspiracy theorists before! They're critical if something seems too simple!"

"Kuku! So you're saying we'll just look like a bunch of weirdos?"

"No different from most of this crowd," Giroro folded his arms, and looked back at the mass of geeks behind them. He noted a few typical otaku types whispering and pointing to Kirere, followed by a small laugh. "HEY! You two! Knock it off! I know exactly what you're doing, and I don't like it! I was your age, once, too!"

"G-Giroro Goucho,"Keroro pulled back Giroro, who had gone into defense mode, and looked ready to beat up the nerds at the drop of a hat.

"Next," came a voice in smooth yet accented Japanese. Fuyukiâ€™s smile grew, and he walked up with Momoka, his book in hand.

"Woah, a real foreigner!" Kirere gasped as she noticed the author's blond hair and blue eyes. "And not on TV!"

"It's rude to stare," Giroro reminded her sternly.

"I wonder if he keeps his shoes on when he's in his house," Kirere wondered aloud.

"I wouldn't stand for that in my house!" Keroro answered with a frown at the thought of someone stomping into a clean house with muddy shoes.

"Ah, this was a fun one to write," said the author as he gave a nod and flipped through the pages of Fuyuki's book. "Looks like you've read it a great deal."

"Five times," Fuyuki answered, still awestruck at talking to the author. "It's one of the best in your series yet!"

"My. It was worth the time translating it if you've gotten that much use out of it then," Kezanstav laughed gently.

Giroro took this time to study the author with a critical eye. An older man, probably in his late thirties, early forties... A brown suit that made one think of a college professor... Short, blond hair, and blue eyes looking out from beneath square-framed glasses. He had an overall at-ease look about him, and smelt like tobacco... There was something about him that sent up an alarm for Giroro, however. He just couldn't place his finger on what it was...

"Hey, baby, nice uniform!" whistled a passing-by customer.

"Thank you! Your shirt's pretty cool, too!" Kirere shouted back.

"Wha-What?! Get back here! Lolicon pervs!" Giroro shouted, and now Kururu gripped onto Giroro's other arm in order to restrain the corporal.

"I didn't even know Goucho knew a word like Lolicon," Tamama admitted.

"Hehe, quite a colorful cast of friends you have there," Kezanstav admitted as he passed Fuyuki his book back, and then went to signing Momoka's. "Well, I moved to Japan in hopes of seeing the unusual, anyway. I'm happy to report that since I've come here I've gotten quite a bit of it."

"Well, I wish I could say the same, Kezanstav Sensei," Fuyuki said with a bit of embarrassment. "My life's pretty boring, probably nowhere near as exciting as yours!"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. Youth is full of adventures. And for the young lady," the author shut the book and passed it back to Momoka. "You kids have a good day with your... Friends. And remember to keep your eyes out for the unusual! Even an instant can be life changing."

"Can do," Fuyuki gave a bow. "Thank you again, Kezanstav Sensei!"

Kezanstav gave a nod in return, and Fuyuki walked out, still clutching the book with excitement.

"Keroro," Giroro had calmed down now, and fell back from the group with the Sergeant. "...That guy..."

"What a weird name..." Keroro said with disbelief.

"No! I mean..."

"Yes," Dororo stopped and turned to them. "I felt it, too."

"I'll be glad when he goes back to whenever he's from," Giroro grumbled. "That guy gave me the creeps."

"And I'm sure you've scared a few people with your appearance at first, too, Goucho!" Keroro laughed flippantly.

"W-what's THAT mean?!" Giroro snarled.

"W-well, you're not the most personable-looking," Keroro admitted with a weak laugh.

"Hey!" Kirere turned around and waved to them. "Are you guys about done?!"

"Y-yes. Coming," Giroro resumed walking, as did Dororo. Keroro looked back at the bookstore once more, and then he followed the rest of the group, back to the Hinata residence.

It was much later in the evening when Momoka finally left, having listened to Fuyuki's energetic retelling of his meeting with Kezanstav, first to Natsumi, and then to Aki.

Giroro retreated to his tent, Dororo went home to Koyuki, Tamama went home with Momoka, and Keroro stole away to his room as soon as he finished his chores.

Mois was upstairs with Keroro, leaving only one person for Kirere to bother. Kururu drew the short straw again that night.

"If you're going to stare, you could be helpful at least," Kururu announced as he felt her presence. "Grab a wrench."

"What're you working on?"

"The less you know, the better, kukuku!" was Kururu's reply. Kirere gave a sigh but did as she was told, and began to tighten some of the washers on the large motorcycle-looking machine.

"...There was a boy on the ship a lot like you," Kirere said as she went to work. "When I was with Garuru Ojisan? He laughed a lot, and he liked computers."

"I didn't ask about your trip, and yet you're telling me."

"He wasn't as nice as you, though," she added.

"I'm nice? I'm losing my touch, kukuku."

"He was kinda a jerk. I think I might've thrown a monitor at his face... I blacked out afterwards, though. I don't know, it was all a blur, but it must've been me. I feel really bad about it... I mean, he was mean, but I don't think he deserved that."

"...Kuuuukukuku!" this was a sincere laugh from Kururu, much to Kirere's surprise. This concerned her enough to where she stopped working and stood up, watching Kururu have his laugh. "Kukuku! That deserves a treat."

"But I feel really bad about it..."

"You shouldn't, kukuku!" Kururu was still finding a bit of amusement in this. "There's got to be something you want."

"How about a hu-"

"Neh! You have a hug jar," Kururu grumbled, and indeed she did. Whenever she managed to raise 2 000 yen, this would equal into a allowing her brief physical contact with Kururu. Fortunately for the scientist she had only managed to raise 800 yen so far. "Name something that doesn't require psychological torment on my part, kukuku!"

"Something I want?" Kirere returned to work, and thought for a few moments. "Anything, right?"

"If you say a kiss on the forehead this deal is off, kuku," Kururu chuckled. Tororo took a heavy computer part to the face. This was too great. He would be laughing for days.

"All right. I know what I want!" she announced with a happy grin.

"Kuku, you must get that enthusiasm from Giroro Senpai. I was never this hyper at your age."

"Yeah, but you were sure creepy."

"Kuuukuku! I like to keep an image going. So what is it you want? It must be big if you're smiling like that."

The following day, Kururu found himself miserable in the maze of junk that surrounded him from every side. It was like a graveyard to technology his kind had used before he was even born. Before his grandparents had even been a thought, more than likely. Kirere, meanwhile, was having a grand time looking through the junkyard, picking up pieces, some that were nearly as big as she was.

"Come on! You said you'd help!" she grunted as she walked past him, dropping a small fan along the way. Kururu picked up the fan and reluctantly followed her over to whatever it was she was working on.

"So, guess what it is!" she took a step back after dropping the heavy car part to the ground, and Kururu looked over the machine silently for a few moments, studying it.

"A mess," he answered curtly.

"Funny," she sighed, hopping up on top of the hood of it. "I'm reassembling one of these cars!"

"...How... Ambitious?" Kururu passed her up the fan and glanced in, studying the engine. "...So this is how you choose to waste your time, kukuku."

"Pass me those," she stood up after taking the fan and pointed behind her, to some sparkplugs. Kururu did just that with a sigh, trudging along the entire way. "Hrm... Nah, these are all rotted. Watch this, I'm gonna go look for some better ones of... These things!"

"Take your time," Kururu stretched and yawned, and leaned against a nearby stack of junk. It didn't take long for the large pile to tumble right atop of him, trapping him.

Kirere, meanwhile, hopped into car after car in hopes of finding a good-enough set of spark plugs. She finally became aware of what looked like a small, rundown building right at the front gate. There were a few old vending machines and plastic chairs outside of it, as well as a small TV atop an empty rusted oil drum.

The building itself was large enough to fit a few cars, and from the open metal garage doors Kirere could see that was exactly what it was used for. She could see even from her distance that, sure enough, on the ground there was a set of sparkplugs. She made sure her invisibility was on before creeping into the garage.

The garage itself was a mess. Whoever the owner was would've probably faired well with Tororo, she surmised as she inched closer to the sacred car part. She yelped and fell back, however, when a pair of heavy workboots came out of seemingly nowhere, and a Pekoponian attached to them.

He was a mid-sized Pekoponian, in a blue jumpsuit and grease-stained white gloves. His hair was sloppy, a red bandanna covering most of it, and his face was young, but tired-looking.

"Stupid bill collector!" he gave a rough kick to the back tire of the car and almost immediately gave a yell of pain. He hopped up and down, clutching onto his foot, and Kirere rolled under the car in order to prevent being spotted. Now the sparkplugs were much further from her, she noticed with a heavy frown.

"I'll show 'um... It won't be funny when I'm towing their car, that's for sure!" he snapped, and Kirere heard a clicking noise.

'All these Pekoponians are nuts!' Kirere thought to herself, all while reaching for the sparkplugs. Then there was a sudden scent, one that sent Kirere into a sneezing fit. This caught the attention of the mechanic, who leaned down, cigarette still dangling from his mouth. Their eyes met for a moment, and he jumped back against the closest wall, screaming. Kirere joined in his screaming in a matter of moments.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

"P-pink lizard demon-baby!" he shrieked, grabbing onto the nearest thing for protection; a golf club. He then began to swing it at her, eventually knocking down a tailpipe from a high shelf. It landed right on his head, sending him falling to the ground.

"O-oh no! I-I killed him!" Kirere yelped as she ran out to inspect him; he was only knocked out cold, thankfully, she realized after leaning over his face. She was caught off guard, however, when he suddenly gripped her on the sides and lifted her up.

"You... You are real..." He said in awe as she squirmed in his arms. "And you're squishy..."

"UGH! Let me... GO! Kururu-san! Giroro-san! Help! Anybody! Help! Help!"

"Woah... Woah, calm down..." he flinched as he sat up, and continued to keep a tight grip on her. "...What are you, a kappa? You're not a mermaid..."

"NEH!" she broke away from him, and took off running.

"Hey, slow down, pink lizard-baby!" he shouted, jumping up and running after her. Kirere didn't pay much attention to what was ahead of her, only getting away from the man. She didn't see the sharp metal shard sticking out from a scrap heap, and didn't realize its existence until she had already run her leg against it, giving herself a good-sized cut.

"Owww!" she fell to the ground, gripping onto her left leg. She then crouched down in fear as the mechanic bent down over her.

"...There, that ought to do it. You're lucky you didn't slice off something, the way you were running!" he finished bandaging her leg and Kirere looked down at his handiwork, silent. The mechanic adjusted the icepack top his own head, and gave a smile. "I didn't think yokai would be so careless!"

"...I'm not a yokai," Kirere sniffed, and sat back on the bed. She'd been brought to a small room in the same building as the garage, which wasn't much more than a stove, a shelf, a television, an old wooden chair, and a rickety bed.

"Right. The electricity and all, it repels yokai," he gave a nod, and immediately regretted it, as the pain from the tailpipe incident came traveling back in a sharp, stinging reminder. "So what are you, anyway?"

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"You're not supposed to trespass, either," he answered. "What were you doing here?"

"Building," she replied after a silence, fidgeting as the wound continued to sting a bit.

"Hehe, a little guy like you? Well, I guess I'm not going nuts, thinking it was just oversized rats moving everything,"he stood as the kettle began to sound, and poured some hot water into a cup of Ramen. "Did you want some?"

"I'm a girl!" Kirere snapped. "And no, I don't!"

"Woah, okay, sorry... I just didn't want to think because you were pink you were a girl, it causes problems," he laughed. "So what's your name, anyway?... Ah, I gotcha. I'm a stranger. Well, I'm Haruki Suzuyama. See? It's on my jumpsuit. Now we know one another."

Kirere snorted at this, holding back a chuckle.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, it sounds like Haruhi Suzumiya. I get that a lot. So what's your name, smartie?"

"Kirere," she answered through her laughing.

"Kirere? Not much better," he took a seat, sitting backwards in his chair and looking over. "Hrm? What's eating you now?" he asked as he noticed her expression had switched to thoughtful after she'd gotten a good laugh from his unfortunate name.

"Pekoponians like you aren't supposed to be able to see me! I have my anti-barrier on!" Kirere explained, pointing to her forehead and the symbol on it.

"Peko-whatnows? And an anti-what? You mean, no one else can see you with that thing on?"

"Well... Saburo-san can... And Koyuki-san... And Fuyuki-san and Natsumi-san, and-"

"Woah, they don't sound too effective, then!" Haruki gave a small laugh. "Kinda a shoddy technology you got there."

"It is not!" Kirere snapped. "It's a lot cooler than anything Pekopon has!"

"There you go again with that Pekopon..." Haruki sighed. "Maybe... Maybe there's some reason I can see you after all, and it's the same as why those other people can see you, too."

"...Well, they weren't really too, too surprised by Keronians, either," Kirere said with a bit of thought.

"Eh, I guess a normal person would be, though... I mean, the closest thing to what you look like is an Olympic Mascot. It might be because I was raised thinking yokai and all that stuff was real," Haruki shrugged. "My grandma raised to believe in monsters and spirits. You could imagine how I faired when moved out of the little village we lived in and into Tokyo... Everyone thought I was crazy. Heck, they still do! Looks like I was the sane one, though."

"Mm," Kirere nodded.

"I wish my grandma could see you now, actually, hehe! She'd probably think you were pretty cute!" he laughed. "And pink was her favorite color, too... So, there any others of you?"

"Oh, NO!" Kirere hopped down and hobbled to the door. "Kuru-san!"

"Woah, hang on..." Haruhi stood and followed her over. "Your buddy's missing?"

"No, my mom-Dad-Um, I've gotta go!" she shouted, breaking into a run as he opened the door. Haruki was quick to follow the young girl to the car she had been working on, taking care as it was now dark in the junkyard.

"Kuru-san!? Kuru-san!?" Kirere shouted, looking all around for the yellow Keronian. Then came a noise from an overturned refrigerator; three consecutive, angry-sounding pounds.

"He under here?"

"Yeah," Kirere nodded, and watched as Haruki gripped onto the refrigerator's top and lifted it up, throwing it back.

"Ku... Ku ku!"

"Kuru-san?!" Kirere shouted, running to Kururu, who was sprawled out on the dirt.

"Looks like he had his one hand stuck under it," Haruki muttered as he overlooked the new alien. He smelt like soup base, Haruki realized as an afterthought to lifting up Kururu. He even looked the same color as a bullion cube.

"Oh, no! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Kirere cried, her hands at her mouth.

"I'll get him fixed up, too," Haruki sighed, and looked over to her. "Are all of you guys this klutzy? It'd explain why there aren't a lot of you."

"...That hurts," Kururu said blandly as Haruki continued stitching.

"Relax, Four-eyes, and be glad it's not worse," Haruki answered as he sat on the side of the tub while Kururu sat in the tub, on top of a milk crate. "It could be broken, you're lucky it's just a gash."

"Watch it," Kururu snapped after flinching.

"Are you always this annoying?!"

"Yes, I take pride in it," Kururu answered.

"There, done... You're a pain in the ass as a patient, I'll tell you that."

"You're an ugly nurse, kukuku!" Kururu examined his hand and snorted. "This is shoddy."

"Well I couldn't exactly take you to the emergency room... Although the vet might've worked," Haruki said with a bit of thought.

"Kururu-san?" Kirere asked weakly from her hiding place behind the bathroom door.

"Mr. Personality's all right... Physically at least," Haruki stood and looked down at Kirere, then to Kururu. "So do you guys need a ride home?"

Aki was a bit surprised when right behind her pulled up a beat-up white delivery scooter, and off hopped a man in a mechanic's suit, carrying both Kirere and Kururu in his arms.

"Woah. Hottie," Haruki blinked as he laid eyes on Aki. Kirere could've sworn she heard something  
similar to a low grunt emit from Kururu. "Um, Ma'am, I know it's late, but... Do these belong to you?"

"Kuru-chan! Kirere-chan!" Aki gasped as she saw both were injured. "What happened!?"

"A couple of unfortunate accidents, I-"

"This is Haruki Suzuyama, he took care of me and Kuru-san!" Kirere chirped up.

Aki took both of the aliens from his arms and gave a smile, "Did he now? That was awfully nice of him."

"All in the line of duty," Haruki answered with a bashful chuckle. "Your little monsters are cute! And don't worry, I won't say anything. No one would believe me if I told them anyway, heh."

"I'm glad, I'd have to hurt you, otherwise," Aki answered with a wink that shook Haruki a bit. Those eyes... She was serious.

"We're not monsters, we're aliens!" Kirere said happily. Aki only gave a sigh and shook her head in a matronly manner. "See you around, Haruki!"she made sure to wave goodbye to the mechanic as Aki carried both into the house.

"Thank you," Aki gave a smile and turned away from him, into the house.

"Yeah, see you too, little weird aliens!" Haruki remained there waving a few moments, then his smile faded. "A-ALIENS?!"

"You're not going to do a mind-wipe, Kuru-chan?" Aki asked the yellow scientist.

"Kuku! My equipment was damaged from having a pile of junk land on top of me," was Kururu's answer as they walked into the home. "Kuku! We'll have to hope he's right about everyone thinking he's a fool until I can do the job."

"I could handle him if he did go to say anything," she added cheerfully.

"I know you could,"was Kururu's reply.

"Kirere!" Giroro hopped off of the couch and ran over to her. "What happened?!" Natsumi, who had been sitting beside the nervous Keron soldier, stood and walked over to her mother, Kururu, and Kirere.

"I slipped and cut myself, but. Suzuyama-san helped me!" she hopped down to the floor, and Giroro immediately began inspecting the wound.

"Kuku, I'm hurt, too," Kururu said in the background of all of this. He went unnoticed by Giroro.

"Wait. Suzuyama?" Giroro stood up, and looked down at her.

Kirere lit up, "Oh! He's the owner of-" She the trailed off as she opened her eyes and saw Giroro's face. It was his "you're in trouble now" face.

"Did I hear that right? She's not here because she's... Grounded?" Keroro repeated, and Giroro gave a nod.

"She compromised our position," Giroro answered as they all sat there the following morning. "Our presence is now known to another Pekoponian! A mechanic named Haruki Suzuyama."

"...N-named WHAT?!" Keroro laughed. "Geroooo gero gero!"

"What's so funny?"

"N-nothing. It's an otaku thing, it's lost on your kind," Keroro wiped his eyes and adjusted his papers. "So many odd names as of late! Pekopon's such an amusing place."

"Another Pekoponian?" Dororo looked to Giroro. "Shouldn't we be concerned by this?"

"Kukuku! I wouldn't worry. He's open in his belief of monsters and spirits... Kukuku, in short, his talking makes even me look sane!"

"We'll keep him under surveillance," Giroro added. "In the meantime, Kirere is barred from visiting the junkyard where he works... What? What's the look for?"

"...You're being pretty harsh on her, Goucho-san," Tamama admitted, taking another dip into his bag of chips. The looks were similar all throughout the room.

"Could you say, authoritative parenting?" Mois added.

"None of you understand anything," Giroro snarled, and stood from his seat. "I'll be doing something actually useful to our operation if you need me!"

"...'Kay then. Moving on," Keroro was a bit shaken, but shuffled his papers around again.

Giroro, meanwhile, walked up to the kitchen, and retrieved a bag of spicy chips and a can of soda, and then made his was down to the lab, and to Kirere's room. What she had done was indeed grave, but she was still injured, and she had indeed apologized.

She hadn't expected the invisibility shield to not work... That was something you couldn't control. The man was probably a bit "off", like the other Pekoponians they had befriended over the years, and the shield didn't work on him.

Giroro heaved a sigh, and opened the door, not looking forward to this but still knowing it was necessary, "Kirere, I-"

She was nowhere in the room, though. She wasn't even in her closet, or underneath her bed. She was nowhere in the lab.

"Hey, kiddo, how're you doing down there?" Haruki knocked on the side of the car body, and Kirere climbed out from beneath it and gave a thumbs up. "...Must be nice to be able to be able to squeeze into the small places like that. You sure your dad's okay with you doing this?"

"Can I have the wrench?"

"Huh? Oh, sure," he kicked it gently over to her, and she took it and went back to work. "You're a lot better than my last assistant. Real weirdo, just kept laughing, and smiling. It was creepy... Well, I think I'm done up here."

"Same!" Kirere squirmed out and then stood back, waiting for him to start up the car. Haruki slammed the hood shut and then went to starting up the car.

"Ha ha! Hey, perfect!" he exclaimed as it did indeed start up. "Everything sounds great!"

"I finally made something and Natsumi-san didn't have to destroy it, and it didn't blow up, either!" Kirere cheered happily.

"I didn't really understand that, but okay," Haruki scratched the back of his head and walked over to one of the shelves, pulling down a coffee can and pulling out some bills. "Here ya go."

"What's this for?" she took the bills and looked back up at Haruki.

"Ah, right! You aliens probably use like, Imperial Credits, right? Well, that's money, it's-"

"I know what it is, but why are you giving it to me?"

"Well, you helped me. I can't guarantee the paydays'll always be good, but I like to think I'm a fair guy," Haruki shrugged. "You ought to be getting home, now, don't you think? It's almost lunchtime."

"Oh, yeah!" Kirere nodded.

"I'll give you a ride home, just let me get my helmet."

"Thanks!" Kirere called out, running out of the garage.

Giroro, meanwhile, remained floating there, on his hovercraft, watching this exchange. He said nothing, and floated off.


	7. Chapter 7

"Gya! Don't take out your pent-up rage on me, Natsumi-dono!"Keroro yelped, jumping back quickly.

Giroro was a bit puzzled by the brown paper bag that was held out to him, then Kirere smiled and took a seat next to him by the fire, "I got some sweet potatoes for you."

"Part of your paycheck from that Pekoponian?"Giroro answered dully as he resumed polishing his rifle.

Kirere's expression was stunned, and she looked away from him, choosing to stare at the fence instead. She said nothing to this.

"You looked...Very happy working today,"Giroro added, much to Kirere's surprise.

In truth, he was jealous. He spent the most time with her, yet the more and more she grew, the more it was obvious the two shared little in common with one another. He struggled to find things that were on their same level, but it had come so easy to a Pekopon slacker.

The fact that even Kururu had more in common with the girl annoyed him greatly.

"I...I did,"she answered quietly. "Haruki-san's really, really nice. He said he wouldn't tell anyone about us! He said no one would believe him, anyway! He promised! He's good for it, really!"

There would always be some crackpot who believed, and that's what worried Giroro. It would lead to them wanting to investigate the Hinata household, or worse yet, even capturing one of them.  
But he couldn't tell her not to go to the one place she loved. She'd go there anyway, every chance she got. She was as stubborn as him and, even though she didn't know it yet, probably possessed Kururu's sneakiness.

"Tell him...If he says anything, period, he will have the entire Keron army come down on him like a plague,"Giroro said sternly. Kirere smiled at this, and took it as permission to continue going. She embraced him, and Giroro was a little surprised by this, but continued as she did so. "If this effects your training or your helping in our invasion operation strategy, you're to stop going. Is that all understood?"

"Yeah!"she nodded. "He won't, he's really cool! And Mama already said if he hurt my feelings or anything she'd make him pay. Pay what, I dunno, but she sounded really serious!"

That indeed put Giroro a bit more at ease. Even Kururu didn't mess with Natsumi's mother, due to the woman's strength.

"I'm gonna go get Natsumi-san! You guys can have sweet potatoes together!"

"W-wait! Kirere, I-"but the little girl was off like a rocket, already back in the Hinata house.

"Still can't find your wallet?"Natsumi now walked back into the living room, having left Kururu, who was still recovering from the deathblow he'd received .He was just being a drama queen about it, she concluded.

Now she watched as Fuyuki tore through the living room, having already pulled off the couch cushions, and was now looking beneath the said furniture.

"It's been close to a week now, and I haven't seen any sign of it!"Fuyuki stood up and moaned. "...My whole allowance was in there. I told Nishizawa-san I'd go to the movies with her today, but..."

"Relax. This better teach you to be more careful with you things,"Natsumi chided. "I'll let you borrow some money until you find it."

"Really?! Thanks, Nee-chan,"Fuyuki smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. "I still wish I could find it, though."

"You're paying interest."

"...Ehhh..."

Then there came a knock on the door, as if by coincidence. Natsumi looked to the door with confusion, walking over to it as she said to herself, "Who could that be at this time of the day? The mail's come, and Mama has a key. Hello?"

She was taken aback by the presence of the foreigner on their front doorstep, and immediately she went into shaky English, trying best to recall her lessons, "Can I...Help you?"

"It's all right, I don't speak English well,"he returned in Japanese and gave a smile. "I'm looking for Hinata Fuyuki."

"Hrm? K-Kezanstav sensei!?"Fuyuki's eyes grew wide at the presence of the familiar author, and Kezanstav only returned this with the smile cool grin.

"You left something at the book signing,"the author then retrieved Fuyuki's wallet from his own jacket pocket, and held it up. "I would've returned it sooner, but my publicist keeps me on a short leash. I was only able to sneak out just now under the assumption I was getting a sandwich."

"W-would you like to come in?"Fuyuki asked, much too starstruck to even think straight.

"Might I?"Kezanstav raised his eyebrows, and took a step in.

Keroro, who had been lugging along a laundry basket with his good arm, immediately gave a yelp as for a brief second he saw the foreigner, and he then took up hiding in a cabinet in the kitchen. It was only when he was tucked in tightly with the cleaning supplies he began to assess the situation aloud.

"Wait a moment. Why am I hiding from something as helpless as a Pekoponian? I have advanced technology on my side! This is undoubtedly foolish, even for me!"

Natsumi finished fixing the couch, explaining they were in the middle of cleaning, when Keroro nonchalantly sauntered out, his invisibility on and his good hand behind his head. He stopped long enough to turn and stick his tongue out at Kezanstav, much to Natsumi's horror. The sergeant then proceeded to pull down an eyelid as well, as well as a few other gestures, all while Natsumi shook, holding back the urge to punt the little green terror across the room with all of her might.

"Are you all right?"Kezanstav looked to Natsumi, who was visibly shaking and growling with anger at what looked like a blank wall. She immediately switched gears and smiled.

"I just remembered I forgot milk at the store, is all, and I was planning on making a cake tonight!"Natsumi lied. "Um, so...What brings you to Japan, anyway? Isn't it a long way from your home?"

"Well, I explained this a while ago to your brother, but I don't usually go into detail,"Kezanstav answered, clasping his hands together and sitting in a relaxed position as he spoke. Keroro now also stopped his taunting in order to hear what the man had to say. "...When I was a young, young child, I saw something astounding."

"Yes?"Fuyuki's eyes now twinkled as he leaned in to hear the man's story.

"Well, I was out in my village, and...I should have been in bed, but I couldn't sleep, it was a very cold night,"Kezanstav began. "Anyway, I saw this sudden...Flash! In the sky! Of course I was young, and curious, so I went to investigate."

"Yes? Then what?"Fuyuki implored excitedly. He didn't notice, during this, Kirere had rushed in. Fortunately the door had been open, so she had made little noise, but the little girl quickly ducked back out, much to Natsumi's horror. Fortunately, the Russian author had had his back to the pink Keron girl during this entire occurrence.

"Fuyuki,"Natsumi sighed at her brother's embarrassing eagerness, all while keeping her eyes on the door.

"It's all right,"Kezanstav laughed. "I found a large...Crater, in the middle of a field. It was fresh, and warm. All of the snow around it was melted... And I saw what looked like a dark blur, rush right past me! And then...Nothing."

"Nothing?"Fuyuki sat back, his face falling in disappointment.

"That following morning everyone went to investigate it...It was dismissed as a meteor,"Kezanstav sighed. "But I've always known better. It's become a little...Obsession of mine, I guess you could say. I've always just hoped to catch another glimpse of what was there, know who they are, what they wanted. If they came in peace or were here trying to pull off some kind of hostile takeover. Well! Thank you for your hospitality, but I'm afraid I must leave now, before my publicist comes to skin me alive."

Natsumi and Fuyuki laughed at this as well, and Fuyuki led him to the front door, "Thank you again for returning my wallet, Kezanstav-san!"

"Oh, it's my pleasure,"Kezanstav nodded and smiled. "Take care, Fuyuki-chan."

The black-haired boy then shut the door, and Kezanstav walked across the street, and down another block, stopping and looking up onto a fence, where sat perched a tiny creature, covered completely in a brown hooded cape with red accenting on the hem of it.

"So how many did you see?"Kezanstav looked over to the creature, his expression totally changed now. It was much colder, and stern.

A tiny hand emerged from the robe, a teal-colored one that held up four fingers. "That many, eh? Well, there could be more, yet... I heard one walk in while I was talking to those siblings, and I had to use most of my energy to hold back beating that rude little green one to a pulp... Did you see potential in any of them?"

A nod was given, and Kezanstav smiled. "Very good. Now the trick is getting one alone."

The hood lifted up a bit, revealing a large almond-shaped yellow eye. It met with Kezanstav's a moment, and the author jerked his head back . "It's a little girl? Now that is indeed interesting. Come on."

And Kezansatv hailed a taxi while the little creature jumped up from its position and was soon gone from sight.

"Ku ku! Ugh..."Kururu adjusted the ice pack on his head and gave a grumble. His head was killing him. He laid back in his chair, busying himself by typing away, and was a bit surprised as he found a plate of curry out in front of him. It was Kirere, holding out a large bowl to him; her version of a peace offering.

"I figured leftovers would be okay tonight, because you're not feeling so good,"she answered, and he silently took the plate and leaned back once more. She took up her own plate at the side of his chair, and dug into hers. "So what're you doing, anyway?"

"Nothing you could comprehend, kukuku!"Kururu answered with a laugh, clicking away with one hand as he switched screens. "It's dealing with Teicho's newest scheme."

"So...Do you really want to take over Pekopon?"

"Kuuuukuku! I don't care where it is as long as everyone leaves me alone,"Kururu answered with a chuckle.

"How's your hand doing?"

"Why should you even care, kukuku?"

"Well, I just do. I care about you,"Kirere shrugged. "You care about me, right?"

Kururu said nothing, only resumed eating. Kirere was confused by this silence, then smiled and shrugged it off, "You just have a hard time saying it, is all. That's okay, to be shy."

"I have to get back to work,"Kururu announced dully, setting aside his plate.

"Can I stay with you?"

"If you like being bored, sure,"Kururu answered in the same monotone voice, and resumed his work.


	8. Chapter 8

"Hrm? Giroro-kun?"Dororo was confused at the sight of the red infantry specialist by himself in the junkyard that following morning, looking in at the workshop through an old window. Dororo had been jumping along the telephone poles as a means of travel, his ultimate destination the Hinata house, but had seen the bright red Giroro almost instantly. He hopped down to investigate.

"Do-Dororo!"Giroro yelped in surprise as the ninja landed near-silent on an old car. "What are you doing here?"

"I was in the neighborhood. Are you training here?"

"N-not quite," Giroro's eyes fell back to the window, and Dororo peered in, and saw Kirere working now on a motorcycle with Haruki. She was seated on the seat of the vehicle, bent over and working on one of its sides, while Haruki was working on the engine.

"Why, she looks in her natural element!"Dororo said with awe. "I haven't seen her this at-ease with something before! Not even with Kururu-dono!"

"Mm, I know," Giroro stood back and turned his back to the shack, and began to float away. Dororo, curious, followed the infantryman.

"...You're afraid you'll lose her to him," Dororo concluded as he studied Giroro's grim features.

"She loves this planet too much. Dororo, I know how much you love this earth, but you know there'll be a time when we have to return to Pekopon. It's our responsibility. She...Doesn't understand it. She can't yet. And I have the feeling... That she wouldn't be happy anyplace else."

"You love her a lot," Dororo said with a bit of amazement in his voice. "Sometimes solutions are not always easy, but...When the time does come, she will not be the only one having a hard time leaving her attachments."

Giroro was stunned at this, but said nothing. His face only flushed a bit in embarrassment.

"Let her grow, and have her fun," Dororo instructed. "Any decision you make will be the right one, Giroro-kun. You're the parent."

"...Whoever said war was hell never had to do this," Giroro said, bowing his head. "...That fool is having another meeting, are you coming?"

"I...Why not? I'm always there," Dororo answered.

"Oh, I guess I don't always notice...B-but it's not because of that! It's just between keeping her and Tamama from bickering, and Keroro-

"I-it's all right, I understand," Dororo answered, trying to hide how much this had shaken his feelings.

"Hrm? You okay, kid?"Haruki stopped working, and saw Kirere was sitting up, as if listening to something far away.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm great," Kirere returned, jerking her head around to Haruki. "Just...Thought I heard some people talking is all. It was no one."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't be shocked if someone was around here...My guard dog ran off about three months ago, I haven't seen Spike since, so it wouldn't be out of the question that someone's lurking around here," Haruki scratched the back of his head. Kirere flinched, but resumed her work. "Eh, he'll show up. He's like me, kinda a world traveler."

"World traveler?"

"Yeah," Haruki nodded. "I spent a little bit of time in Hawaii at one point, after flunking out of med school."

"You're a flunky, too!"Kirere cried happily. "Like me!"

"Ehehehe...Well, I wouldn't brag about something like that. I just always liked this as a hobby, and it kind of became my career. It's about the only thing I could do well."

"So...Is that why you moved back to Japan?"

"No. But, I'm glad I did," he answered. "I got to meet a real alien! ...That's a lot cooler than even living in Hawaii."

"I'm glad I got to meet you, too," Kirere admitted, sitting up on the motorcycle.

"Hehe. Okay, enough with the mush. I'm not paying you under the table to be sentimental."

"Right!" she nodded, and went right back to work, struggling to push her father's words into the back of her mind as she did so.

"We're closed," Haruki announced as he heard a knock on his shack's door later that night. He had just returned half an hour ago from dropping Kirere off, and as a bonus, had gotten to see Aki right before she was headed back to work. She looked a bit exhausted, but the woman was even attractive when she was looking worn down.

There was another knock, this one more insistent, and Haruki sighed, tossing down the screwdriver he had been using and pulling off the goggles he'd been wearing, "I'm coming, I'm coming! Hold on! Or if you're a bill collector, go away!"

There was another knock, and Haruki swung open the door, meeting eyes with the cold blue pair in front of him, "Can I help you?"

"I'm hoping," came an answer in accented Japanese. "May I come in?"

"Whatever you're selling-

Haruki was then face-to-face with an open suitcase, full of yen bills. He paused, choking on his gum before finally swallowing it.

"I just need a little information from you, is all, Mr. Suzuyama," answered the man. "I need to know if you've seen anything unusual around here."

"Well, you're kinda out of place. I don't get many customers," Haruki answered, scratching the back of his head. "Especially ones that'll pay that well."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," the man's voice was a bit more agitated now. "I'm a collector of the occult, the bizarre...I'm willing to pay you whatever you want for whatever information you have. Anything will do."

"Mm...Well, now that you mention it, I did see something weird here..."Haruki looked away in thought. "...Been going on for the past couple of days, now."

"Yes?"the foreign man perked up a bit.

"Yeah, I did...Doraemon popped out of one of the drawers in my dresser this morning, and we've been on all sorts of fun adventures since then. We went to the Jurassic era in his time machine, met with a kingdom run totally by dog-people, and saved a baby dinosaur. And that was just before lunch!"

"You really...Have no clue what you're dealing with," hissed the man on the porch step.

"Not really. I'm just a flunkie loser who runs a garage and junkyard," Haruki shrugged. "Now I suggest you get off of my property. It's not much, but it's mine, and I don't appreciate weirdos on it who aren't me."

Without another word, the briefcase of money was shut, and the foreigner stormed back off toward his car. Haruki shut the door, then immediately slapped his forehead with both hands and gave a yell. That had been millions and millions in yen.

"Grandma, I did that for you, so you better return the favor and help my karma," Haruki said upwards to the sky. "Ugh! I'm an idiot, an idiot, a big, fat, idiot!"

"All right, all clean!"Kirere announced as she took a seat next to Giroro after returning from her bath. "How'd the meeting go today?"

"Keroro was a fool, as always," Giroro answered, turning over the sweet potatoes he was cooking. "...You should have been there, you said you wouldn't miss any. That Was part of our deal."

"...We should go to a theme park. Tama-chan was telling me about them yesterday. Nishizawa company just bought one, there's rollercoasters and everything!"Kirere explained, and her smile fell as Giroro's expression remained the same. "...What're you upset about?"

"We don't have time to do those things," Giroro answered, looking at her. "We have a job to complete, and it's part of your duty, too. You have more responsibilities than helping some Pekoponian. Everyone here is slacking more than usual, lately. Our annual report is coming up, and as it stands we'll have hell to pay if we don't stop fooling around so much."

"Well, you don't want to rush, either, do you? I mean it—"

"You wouldn't understand everything about it. It's not your job to. It's your job to focus on this invasion, like the rest of us."

"...I wouldn't understand it because I'm too dumb to, right?"

Giroro's eyes shifted away from the fire and over to her, "I didn't say that. It's just-

"It's the second time you've said it today!"Kirere snapped, her voice raising a bit now. "I heard you the first time, talking with Dororo-kun!"

"Stupid Frog, -" Natsumi began, then stopped. Keroro, too, who had been ready with his own rebuttal, stopped, and turned his attention to the glass window, where increasingly loud voices could be heard. Their argument over whose night it was to do dishes was on hold as Giroro and Kirere's escalated.

"Gero?"Keroro stalked quietly to the window, while Natsumi did the same, leaning close to the door but remaining hidden by the partially-closed curtain.

"I wasn't calling you stupid, I'm just saying -"

"Ojisama!"Mois ran out, but was immediately shushed by the two at the window. "Hrm? What's going on?"

"Sounds like they're fighting," Natsumi answered as she continued to listen in.

"...And badly, too," Keroro answered flatly as he held up his own ear to the window. Mois pushed back some of her hair and listened in, bending down in between Keroro and Natsumi.

"What do you want from me!?"

"To show a little more focus than that idiot!"Giroro snapped.

"I'm a kid!"

"What idiot, I wonder..."Keroro asked aloud. Natsumi broke away, and looked down at Keroro.

"...You seriously have no idea," Natsumi muttered flatly.

"I wish Haruki was my dad, not you and Kururu!"all immediately jerked away from the window at this, and watched silently as the door slid open, and Giroro stormed in. He briefly looked up at the three and then continued his stomping away from them in smoldering silence.

"...Kirere-chan?"Keroro poked his head out the sliding glass, and saw Kirere sitting on one of the cinder blocks, her hands over her eyes. Keroro walked over, and placed a hand on her shoulder gently. She only flinched and turned away from him.

"I don't want to talk to anyone," she said quietly.

"All right," Keroro nodded. "When you're ready."

The door closed behind Keroro, and Kirere wiped her eyes, and saw Neko walk up to her and brush against her, her way of comforting the girl. Kirere smiled at this, although it was a sad one, "...That was pretty mean...I...I should go apologize, shouldn't I?"

"Meow," Neko answered in agreement, purring and rubbing her head underneath the girl's chin.

"All right," she stood and sniffed, then gave a nod. "Yeah. I'm gonna go apologize, and then do something nice for him. I got paid again, so...Maybe we could go to the beach together. Yeah. He'd like that. Or maybe we can go to one of those theme parks."

She turned around, and fell back as she saw she and Neko were no longer alone.

The figure in the brown hooded cape wasn't much taller than her...It was about the same height difference as Dororo and she. He outstretched an arm to her as she attempted to wriggle away from him.

Then Neko pounced, clinging onto the back of the hooded-figure's head. She went flying into the tent moments later, collapsing the flimsy structure.

"Hrm, only a few more minutes until it's on," Tamama said to himself as he looked at his watch and then back to concentrating on his driving. He was going to be late for the new Admiral Geroro special (his opportunity to bond with Gunso without that woman!) if he didn't step on it.

He landed in the backyard of Hinata house, and almost immediately noticed something off about the eerie scene. There were signs of a struggle, and Giroro's cat lay on her side, panting heavily, beside a caved-in tent. The fire was dead, the cinder blocks were knocked out of their place, and there were signs of someone digging their heels into the ground, as if they were attempting to hold off being pulled somewhere.

"G-Gunso!"Tamama ran into the control room, Neko in his arms. "Gunso-san! Giroro Goucho!"

"Hrm? Tamama Nitohei?"Keroro turned around and he and Mois ran over to private, Mois taking the cat and examining her for injuries.

"It looks like there was a fight outside!"Tamama continued. "Did Goucho get attacked?!"

"Well, no, he's at the shooting range. He and Kirere-chan had a fight and..."Keroro then stopped, and took off running to the shooting range. In a rare moment, Keroro's synapses connected, and he ran as quickly as he could in search of Giroro.

"Ojisama?"

"Gunso-san?"Tamama went running after the sergeant, who went running full speed into the firing range, knocking over a shocked Giroro and landing atop the soldier.

"What the hell's the meaning of this?! I could have killed you, you fool!"Giroro snarled as he sat up, knocking Keroro off of him.

"You can blow me up later, Giroro Goucho!"Keroro remained in the same position he'd been thrown in, with his chin to the ground and his legs up in the air. He righted himself and dusted himself off. "I think we've got a bigger problem as of now!"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

"Kururu!"Giroro shouted as he stormed into the lab. "We need you to pull up the tracking device you put on Kirere!"

"Did she run away again? Kuku, how bothersome!"Kururu muttered as he stretched.

"We think she was kidnapped," Tamama added, and Kururu remained there a moment, unmoving.

"That is indeed a problem."

"Get on with it!"Giroro snarled, and Kururu gave another laugh and went to typing.

"Got it. Hrm...Osaka."

"Osaka!?"Giroro repeated.

"How'd she get so far so fast?"Tamama asked, looking to the two higher-ranking soldiers.

"Kukuku, now that's not my job to know...It looks like she's stationary," Kururu explained.

"That's nearly a straight shot northeast from here," Giroro added as he looked over the map.

"All right!"Keroro clenched his fist. "We're off to Osaka, then!"

"...K-Keroro..."Giroro was stunned by this sudden burst of altruism on Keroro's part. The sergeant's true colors were shining.

"Geerrrooo gero ge. Don't worry, Giroro Goucho, we don't leave any man behind!"Keroro folded his arms proudly and gave an equally proud grin.

"That's not always true," Dororo hopped down from one of his hidden spots in the ceiling and now joined his comrades. "Kirere-chan has gone missing?"

"She's in Osaka," Giroro replied.

"Osaka?"Dororo repeated. "We'll leave at once. I'll get Koyuki-chan!"

"Come on, Tamama Nitohei!"Keroro added, and rushed out with Tamama, leaving Giroro alone with Kururu.

Kururu could feel the corporal's stare through his chair, and he gave a chuckle, "Kuku, did you need something else?"

"Aren't you going, too?"

"I'll hold down the fort here, tell you if she moves," Kururu answered. Giroro clenched his fists; Kururu could do that on the go, and both knew it. He then relaxed his fists after a wave of extreme rage washed over him, and he spoke to Kururu in a low, disgusted tone.

"I'd beat the life out of you, but you're not even worth that. You don't care about her at all, do you? You couldn't love anything if you tried... I think you're too much of a coward to," Giroro said, cutting in the silence, and Kururu said nothing. He didn't laugh, the typing on his computer stopped. There was absolute silence between the two.

"Take this," Kururu tossed a watch out to Giroro, one that looked a bit like Kirere's own bracelet. "It'll help you track her."

Giroro strapped this on his wrist, and was gone without a word. Kururu then went to his real work, and began to type wildly on his keyboard while a barrage of pages floated around the screens.

"...Huh?"Fuyuki heard the doorbell go off, and looked to his watch. "Kezanstav Sensei again?"he asked himself, and he was stunned as instead of a refined foreigner there stood a panting, out-of-shape mechanic at the front door.

"...Are...Are you Aki's little brother?"

"How do you know Mama?"

"M-Mama!?"Haruki yelped as he continued to clutch his side; the run from where he had parked his scooter to the front door had nearly done him in. "She's got a kid?!"

"Fuyuki? Who's that?"Natsumi pushed Fuyuki out of the way and stared Haruki down. "Another weirdo?!"

"Don't tell me you're hers, too... W-wait, don't shut the door! ...I know...About your little aliens, and...I just had something weird happen... I think they could be in trouble."

"That's got to be that author, from the sound of him," Natsumi sipped her drink as she now sat in the living room with Fuyuki and the recovering Haruki.

"...Kezanstav Sensei..."Fuyuki couldn't hide his disappointment as he looked down, his features dark.

"Yeah, I think he found out about them somehow...Trust me, it wasn't me! I haven't said anything about Kirere to anyone!"

"Kukuku, well, that would explain why she's in Osaka. That's where that author lives for the most part, right?"

"Kururu?"Natsumi turned around to see the scientist standing there, his remote in his hands. "What's going on?"

"She's been kidnapped this time, it seems. And it sounds like this foreigner's the one who did it, somehow, kuuukukuku!"

"What?!"both Hinata siblings gasped.

"Osaka? T-that's clear across the island!"said Natsumi.

"We can try to make it on my bike," Haruki suggested.

"That'll take hours, be serious!"Natsumi snapped, and Haruki flinched.

"Sorry, ma'am," Haruki was compelled to answer with. Aki's daughter was just as scary when she had her game face on.

"Kukuku! I have something a little bit faster..."Kururu answered with his eerie-as-ever grin.

'...The last thing we did... Was fight...' Giroro was lost in his thoughts for a few moments as the Keroro platoon, minus Kururu and Dororo, headed toward the beeping signal on their hovercrafts. Dororo had mentioned something about alternative transportation. Giroro didn't care as long as they got there before it was too late. Too late for what, he wasn't sure. And that terrified him.

The home they came to was near-equivalent of an ancient Edo palace. It was like the sort of home the Nishizawas would own as a cottage for its quaint ancient charm.

"...It's huge. Like something out of a samurai movie," Keroro muttered as he stared up and up as they stood out at the front gates, hundreds of meters away from the actual front doors and covered in the same heavy brush of the surrounding forest. If they hadn't known any better, they would have dismissed the place as an abandoned relic.

"We have to have a game plan," Giroro broke away from the line of staring Keronians and took a stick, and began to draw in the dirt with it his proposed idea.

"I staked it out already," Dororo hopped down from his perch on one of the stone posts. "It's five stories, with what looks like a basement as well."

"Dororo, when did you get here?"Keroro wondered aloud.

"About twenty minutes ago," Dororo answered. "I..."

"According to this, she's on the top floor," Giroro looked down at the watch-like device, which was blinking, showing her position.

"Are you sure five people'll be enough, Gunso? It's a really, really big place," Tamama muttered as his eyes traveled up to the top of the mansion. The others did the same, jolting in surprise at the sound of a familiar evil cackle.

"Ku-Kururu Soucho?! Natsumi-dono and Fuyuki-dono!? And a grease monkey?"Keroro jumped back at the sight of the new group of people, who now stood with the three Pekoponians outside of the Kezanstav mansion.

"Who're you calling a grease monkey, shorty!?"Haruki returned with a snap.

"This is just Suzuyama-san, Gunso," Fuyuki explained, pointing over his shoulder to Haruki.

"Hrm, I'm familiar with you," Giroro folded his arms and looked up at Haruki. "You're Kirere's Pekoponian. You're here to help her, too?"

"Well, yeah, she's the best mechanic a guy can ask for!"Haruki answered with a tired grin. "Can't promise I'll be all that helpful, but I'll try."

"It's settled, then!"Keroro announced, balling one fist and looking determined as ever. "We're off to the top floor, just like in that Bruce Lee film!"

"You mean Game of Death?"Fuyuki replied. The name itself sent a chill across the group. "

"Gunso, how do we get in?"Tamama asked suddenly, and the sergeant's bravo faltered a bit.

"W-well, I..."

"Dororo!"Koyuki then jumped down, appearing from seemingly nowhere and landing on one of the stone posts outside the gate. "I made a way in!"

"Wonderful, Koyuki-dono!"Dororo answered. "Let's go!"

"Wait... She 'made' a way in?"Haruki fell to the back of the group as they rushed off, and panted heavily as he rushed to keep up with the much younger and/or in-shape group.

"You! Hurry up! You care about her, don't you?!"Giroro fell back and shouted to Haruki. "Step it up!"

"Quit nagging me, you sound like an old woman!"Haruki shouted, but did indeed step up the pace.

"Here!"Koyuki whispered, pushing aside a pile of tree fronds and revealing a large hole dug underneath the fence. "Sorry it's not bigger, I had to work quick."

"Let's go! Yahoo!"Keroro hopped in, followed by Fuyuki and then everyone else until only Giroro and Kururu were left on the other side.

"...You came afterall," Giroro glanced over at Kururu.

"Kuku! It was boring over there without anyone to torment," Kururu answered.

"Heh. You're a terrible liar," Giroro hopped into the hole and joined everyone on the other side, and Kururu did the same, but not before taking a moment to pause and look behind him. There was something off about the whole situation.

"...The door's open," Giroro stopped, seeing the open shoji door and stopping in the middle of the dark, well-kept yard. Nothing moved around them, even the koi in the stagnant pond didn't make splashing noises. He drew a gun and looked about, surveying the situation. It was obviously a trap, but...

"We should send in one group, first," Giroro turned back to the group, and Keroro nodded.

"Giroro Goucho, you, me, Tamama Nitohei, Dororo Heicho, and Koyuki-dono will go,"Keroro replied.

"Not so fast, Stupid Frog! I'm going to go, too!"Natsumi added, gripping onto the sergeant's head and squeezing.

"You stay here and guard the outside," Giroro looked up at her. "Natsumi, if anyone can hold off any forces, it would be you."

"Hey, maybe I should go," Haruki spoke up. "I'll be more use inside than outside...I'm not too bad at picking locks, and—"

"You're more expendable," Giroro added, and glanced at Keroro. "I'm all right with that. We might need a meat shield."

"Let's go!"Dororo hopped in, followed by Koyuki and Keroro.

"Aren't you coming?"Giroro glanced at Haruki, who gulped and shook a bit at the blackness ahead of them.

"Y-yeah...I'm insane...I'm going insane..."he muttered, shaking his head as he slunk into the mansion.

"...Stay safe," Natsumi whispered, and Fuyuki smiled to ease his sister's obvious worry.

"It's all right, Nee-chan! It's Gunso!"

"If that was supposed to make me feel better...It didn't."

"S-sorry..."

"Kukuku!" Kururu gave a laugh, and glanced down at his remote. "They're making good progress. They're already on the second floor!"

"This is like something from a Shiguru Mizuki manga," Keroro looked about as they walked up the creaky stairs. Haruki bumped into Tamama, who gave a yelp.

"Sorry, it doesn't help you're dark-colored!"Haruki sighed. "...Here, I've got a light."

He reached for his lighted, but Giroro quickly grabbed it, "We want to make ourselves as little-known as possible."

"Well, I don't think it helped that we camped out at his front door," Haruki answered as he gripped onto the handrail as they crept up now to the third floor.

No one could make out how exactly the house was decorated, but they could make out small shadows of objects such as wall scrolls, vases, hanging carpets, and more shoji screens. Keroro gave a scream and fell back down a flight of stairs as he mistook a suit of armor for a person.

"Idiot! We're trying not to be heard!"Giroro snarled. As soon as he spoke, though, on switched a lamp that was attached to the nearby wall. After that came another one, and a whole series, leading all the way up to the top floor. The house became even creepier with the dull lights on.

The scrolls had pictures of monsters on them. The vases were from around the world, and bore pictures of demons and other creatures. The carpet and walls were old. Everything looked as though it belonged in a horror movie.

Giroro's fear of such movies and situations was drowned out by pure rage at the small mysterious figure that stood at the top of the stairs...He, she...Whatever it was... Took Kirere. It had to be that thing.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

"Hehehe, friend of your guys?" Haruki pointed to the brown-cloaked figure, and both Koyuki and Dororo jumped, taking off in different directions but both coming back in at attempt to attack it from either side. The brown-cloaked figure quickly disappeared into thin air, however, just as soon as both landed on the stairs.

"G-guess not…" Haruki stuttered, taking a step back. Tamama glared at the mechanic.

"You better not be going chicken shit on us that quick," Tamama warned, and Haruki felt another chill. What was it with all of these scary people Kirere hung out with? Was he just as scary?

"….I can smell him, Dororo!" Koyuki announced after sniffing into the musty air a few moments.

"Yes… He smells like… The forest…" Dororo looked about, clearly puzzled by this.

"Well, maybe he went back there," Keroro relaxed a bit and leaned against the stairway. As soon as he did this, the floor fell out from beneath them, and they all went sliding down the stairs, floor after floor.

"Yoooouuuuuu idiootttttt!" Giroro called out as he passed Keroro on the slide.

"I'mmmmm sorrryyyyyy!" Keroro cried as he desperately tried to turn and stop by digging into the carpet with his fingers. As soon as he managed this Haruki impacted with him, and both went sailing down into a black pit that opened up in the bottom floor, after Giroro but before anyone else.

"UGH!"

"Neh!"

"OUCH! Get off of me!"

"Hey, that's my foot!"

"…S-stupid Frog!?"

"N-Natsumi-dono!?"

"Natsumi?!"

"Gunso? You, too?"

"Kukuku, looks like we're all here!"

"Natsumi-san, are you all right?"

"Someone get this grease monkey off of me!"

"Oops, sorry little black tadpole thingy!"

"Gunso, where are we?"

"Wait, I've got a light."

"You're still on me!"

"Neh… Here!" Haruki pulled out his zippo lighter, and now got a better look at the small room around him. With further inspection, they all realized it wasn't a room, but a prison cell. The opening above them had shut back up, and anything beyond the bars was enveloped in darkness.

"I've got this!" Koyuki sprung forward, and struck before Dororo could even finish his warning. She quickly fell back from the electric shock she received, and Natsumi and Dororo ran to her.

"Electricity? In a place like this?" Giroro wondered aloud.

"Stand back, this is a man's job!" Tamama stood, and intook a large puff of air, filling his chest and cheeks. "TAMAMA…. IMPACT!"

After the loud boom, and the dust cloud that followed, everyone's hearts sunk as they saw no change in the bars or the room. They found the lock, which Giroro attempted to shoot off, but it also was no use.

"…If someone could just get a hold of it and open it…." Fuyuki said as he studied the limited scenery of the stone cell.

"Well, I've got some rubber gloves on me," Haruki pulled out a pair from his back pocket and held them up. "My hands are too big to get through the bars."

"I can do it," Natsumi stood, and Giroro immediately jumped up, objecting to this.

"Natsumi, don't! It's too dangerous!"

"I'll be fine, don't worry," she pulled on the rubber gloves and looked back behind herself. "Anyone have anything we can pick it with?"

"Kuku! It's basic, but ought to do the trick," Kururu revealed a simple Swiss army knife, opening its blade and passing it to her. Natsumi cautiously bent her hands around the bars and began to pick at the lock, under Haruki's instruction. It clicked open, and the door swung open.

"You did it, Natsumi-dono!"

"Way to go, Nee-chan!" Fuyuki breathed a sigh of relief while Natsumi pulled off the gloves, and Haruki lifted up Koyuki. At that time Dororo had managed to fashion a torch out of some materials that had been lying on the ground of the cell, and he led the way with Keroro and Fuyuki down the hall.

"So what was that thing? Dressed in the brown cape?" Haruki asked Natsumi quietly as they walked down the silent dungeon.

"Brown cape?"

"Yeah, I mean, that's how you guys got down here, too?"

"Well, it was something… But it was Stupid Frog's height, and dressed in white…"

"White? You sure?"

"Yeah," Natsumi nodded. "It was definitely white."

"Kuku! So there's two of them, then," Kururu concluded.

Giroro glanced at his tracking device during this time, and noted it was no longer beeping. His stomach sunk, and he looked back at Kururu. "Did you cheap out on the batteries?!"

"Kuku! There's no way it would've died. She's not wearing it anymore, someone overrode it, or it was destroyed," Kururu explained. "Or she's right over us."

"Gero… Well, if that's the case she should make herself known already," Keroro answered. "…This place is awfully eerie!"

"Gunso-san, maybe she still can't," Tamama suggested.

"She… Can't...?" Giroro said, looking straight down at the ground. Natsumi noted this, and even she, who usually wasn't good at reading Giroro's feelings, understood what was going through his mind at that moment.

"Hey! You think she'd want you getting like that!?" Natsumi snapped to Giroro, who jerked his head up as though he'd just been reprimanded by a higher-ranking soldier. "What kind of soldier are you if you get mopey that easy? I thought you were the best so don't… Don't go getting all depressed! We'll find her, Giroro, but we can't if you're going to obsess like that! She's all right, knowing her!"

"Right!" Keroro chimed in. "If it's one of the last things we do, we'll get her back!"

"Kuku, I wouldn't let an invention that took that much go without a fight. There's a lot invested in her program," Kururu even chimed in. Whether or not he was actually trying to offer his own sort of support or just being his usual snide self was debatable. Either way, Giroro was moved at this.

"So she means a lot to you, too, huh, Red?" Haruki looked down at Giroro. "Is she your niece?"

"She's my—" Giroro only stopped when they finally came to a heavy steel door. Keroro gulped, and first poked it with one finger, relaxing as no electric shock came from it. In fact, it pushed open even with his slight touch.

"Keroro. Let me," Giroro held up his gun and stepped in front, and led the group into the room.

It was surprisingly well-lit, and much more modern-looking than the rest of the home. After a few more moment's inspection, it became clear it was more of a lab than anything else, with a large computer in the center and machines going all along all of the walls.

"I had to do extensive remodeling to get this room up to standard, but I think overall I helped the property value," out from behind the computer stepped Kezanstav, who stood with his hands behind his back and a smirk on his face. It wasn't the same at-ease one that he had used in public, though. It was much colder, much more menacing.

Fuyuki clenched his fists, and was the first to take a step forward toward Kezanstav, "Give Kirere back!"

"Kirere? Is that her name? Makes sense…" Kezanstav looked away and sighed, then looked back at the group. "Five little useless aliens, an out-of-commission ninja, two children, and one loser at life. Even with numbers at your side, I think it's safe to say you're outmatched."

"Fool," Giroro aimed his gun straight at the blonde man and stood in front of the entire group. "You think one bodyguard will stop us? It hasn't done such a great job if we made it this far."

"Unless that was the plan," Kezanstav answered, his grin growing.

"…I… It was part of the plan?" Keroro repeated, and Kezanstav only gave a laugh.

"Fuyuki, you have some very interesting friends indeed…" Kezanstav laughed a bit, then looked at Fuyuki's expression. "Don't feel bad, I would've found out about them either way. That story I told you about what happened when I was a boy wasn't a lie… But I did forget to mention one thing. I found my own friend…"

"Eh?" all watched as the brown hooded figure stepped out from behind Kezanstav, and the Russian bent down and patted the hooded being on the head, as if it were a child.

"My little companion here would've done all the finding for me," Kezanstav explained, still remaining crouched down next to the little being but now looking at the group. "He's quite the good little tracker. Found that little pink Keronian for me, after all."

"Keronian?" Fuyuki repeated. He didn't get much else in; Giroro went running right for Kezanstav, guns drawn and sharp teeth bared. He didn't even get close to Kezanstav; the brown hooded alien vanished, appearing back in between his keeper and Giroro, and he held out a teal hand to Giroro. The arm was covered in a brown and metal armor, but it was difficult to tell exactly what sort of armor it was wearing.

A wave of energy shot out, knocking back not only Giroro but the whole group. Strangely enough, when Koyuki fell atop Haruki, who was still carrying her, she slowly came to, raising her head and looking about, dazed.

"Koyuki-dono!" Dororo stood, and grabbed for his sword. Koyuki nodded, and jumped up, standing next to Dororo.

"Hey, Red, you okay?" Haruki reached over and shook the KO'd Giroro back to consciousness.

Koyuki and Dororo once again went to attack, and Dororo managed to land a hand on the unknown creature, although gripped onto his sword blade, and held onto it. Dororo was stunned, but got a good look at the face of the attacker for the first time. He gasped before being tossed back like a rag doll.

Koyuki, meanwhile, had gone to aide Dororo, but was busy with an alien of her own; the infamous white-hooded partner to Kirere's attacker. This one was the same size as the other alien, but when Koyuki went to disable the creature with a shuriken, she saw the glint of a yellow visor from beneath the hood.

The female ninja didn't land her blow, either. The white hooded figure only held out a hand and Koyuki went flying back.

"Gunso-san, I'll take care of them!" Tamama jumped up as both aliens joined their master at either of his sides.

"Tamama Nitohei, wait a moment!" Keroro held out a hand to motion Tamama to stop.

Kezanstav gave a laugh as he looked over the beaten group, "…Hehehe… And that wasn't even them at their full power. You have to love alien technology."

"That's all this place is, isn't it? Kukuku!" Kururu chuckled as he studied the room. "Technology stolen from aliens."

"Yes! From all over the galaxy! After my one incident, my friend opened up all new doors for me!" Kezanstav answered, giving a sweeping motion with his arms. "Wealth! Intelligence! Power! …Long life. Why, I myself am over one-hundred years old! That incident? It occurred in 1908. I forgot to mention that, though, didn't I? Well, thank goodness for editors; I have a bad habit of leaving out important facts for a story."

"You don't scare us," Giroro grunted, and sat up from his spot on the floor of the lab. "You have a drone or two under your power and you think you're all-powerful. You've never faced the Keron army, you have no idea of our strength."

"No. But I know the power of a Keronian. In fact, I've managed to harness the power of whatever alien species I come across…" he revealed from his pocket what looked to be a jeweled bronze collar, that looked like it would clamp down easily around the neck.

"My, how gaudy," Keroro muttered.

"Yes, undoubtedly. But the wearer has access to their full power," Kezanstav answered. "The only drawback is that they're not in control of it, much less their own minds. The wearer of this is, however." He held up one arm, showing a bronze-colored gauntlet with an oval emerald jewel in the center.

"You shouldn't use anyone like that! It's wrong!" Fuyuki shouted.

"Oh, like they wanted to do anything different when they came," Kezanstav snorted as he looked directly at the Keroro platoon. "It's not my fault they don't have the guts or the brains."

"Guts?! Brains!?" Keroro shouted, and balled his fists. "You'll be seeing your guts and brains by the time we've run you through the wringer, foolish Pekoponian!"

Kezanstav gave another laugh, "How'd you even make sergeant? From what you've shown you couldn't lead a group in Christmas carols."

"Gunso's a better leader than you think!" Fuyuki shouted.

"Yeah!" Natsumi added. "He's an idiot a lot of the time, but he's saved this planet before!"

"I don't doubt that. I just think this time will be a little different," Kezanstav answered, and looked down at the two creatures at his sides. "I don't think it's necessary you two wear those anymore."

And with that, both removed the robes. A collective gasp was uttered.

"K-Kirere!" Giroro shouted.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

The one Keronian no one recognized, but he was clearly an adult male, dressed in full ancient Keronian battle armor. He wore the Kappa-style helmet, and rusted-looking metal armor over his arms, legs, and stomach. His eyes were wide, almond-shaped, and glowing yellow. His symbol was impossible to see over the plated armor on his chest, and there was none on his helmet.

The other Keronian was instantly recognizable, although no one wanted to believe it really was Kirere. She was full-grown, including 'cat ears' sticking up from her purple skullcap, and she now wore a yellow visor over her blue eyes. Her eyes weren't even the same; they were half-lidded, dull, and a cold-looking blue. They looked at no one in particular, and like the other Keronian, she stared straight ahead, as if in a trance.

Both wore the collars Kezanstav mentioned, the largest center red jewel in each lit brightly.

"K-Kirere-chan?" Keroro took a few cautious steps forward, and she shot her head over in his direction. The sergeant didn't know whether to scream, run, or both, but only remained there frozen in place. "I… I…"

She held out a hand, and a mass of wires from above shot down, all rushing towards Keroro. Fortunately Natsumi managed to make a run and scoop him up before they hit the ground, destroying the floor where Keroro had stood like they were a mass of sharp knives or needles.

"She's reached her full potential," Kezanstav grinned. "Aren't you two a pair of proud parents? Isn't this… What everyone wants for their child?"

"You let her go!" Giroro growled, and stood, reloading his gun and glaring at Kezanstav. "You can have me instead!"

"What?! Giroro Gocho!?" Keroro choked.

Kezanstav chuckled at this, and shook his head, "You don't get it. That's to be expected, you're not really that bright when it comes to this sort of thing. Maybe the yellow one can explain it to you."

"Kukuku! I like your style, but I don't like your stealing my inventions so blatantly," Kururu admitted. "Kirere was made to be a supersoldier."

"And that's what I made her," Kezanstav answered.

"What're you going to do with them!?" Fuyuki demanded.

"Finally know everything," Kezanstav's eyes shown as he said this. "And have it all within my grasp, my power, my possession. Have it all."

"If you seriously think you're going to exploit my daughter to get that, you're sadly mistaken," Giroro snarled.

"Wait, your daughter?" Haruki said beneath his breath. "But I thought—"

"So you want to fight, then? Is that it? Seems to be your answer for a lot of things," Kezanstav stepped to the side, leaving Kirere and the other Keron fighter in front of Giroro. "Be my guest."

Giroro would have no reservations about making the teal Keronian eat lead, he knew that. But when he looked at Kirere… She didn't look at him. She didn't smile, or laugh, or bump into something and then giggle over it. She didn't even look at him.

Much to everyone's surprise, Giroro put his gun at his side, and then tossed it on the ground and looked away from everyone. He didn't want to see anyone's reaction, he didn't want to see Kirere, either.

'If I hadn't stormed away like that…' he thought, looking out of the corner of his eye to her.

"Come on now to Father," Kezanstav called to the two Keronian drones, who walked back to him and stood at either of his sides. "I take it you won't be any more trouble to us… If you are, well… I don't necessarily need two; I've done fine with just one all of these years."

With that, the floor went out from beneath them again, and this time when they landed, they were back out at the front gates of the mansion.

No one even questioned why this was. No one said much of anything as they all sat there on the ground, they only watched as Giroro went mad. He took his gun and just went firing into the forest, until it ran out, and then threw the gun into the woods, and sat down on the ground, panting.

"G-Giroro Gocho," Keroro addressed his subordinate quietly.

"Keroro," Giroro's rough tone made Keroro jump a bit. "I'll go after them myself."

"What?! That's insane!" Natsumi shouted, and stood up. "Not even Koyuki-chan and Dororo could go up against the one!"

"Teicho-dono, I don't think he's necessarily bad, either, the other Keronian, that is," Dororo said to Keroro. "His eyes…"

"They're both under that monster's control," Giroro added. "If we can get a hold of the Pekoponian, there's a chance we could save them."

"Kukuku! You know the risks of that, right?" Kururu interjected.

"Like you even care," Giroro shot back just as quickly to Kururu. "You don't care about anything."

"I'm here, aren't I?"

"Jeeze… What a mess…" Haruki placed a hand on his forehead and sighed.  
"Well, whatever you guys need…"

"I don't need anything, and I don't see how you can be any help," Giroro snapped, and headed into the woods.

"Wait! Giroro! Where do you think you're going?" Natsumi called out.

"To figure out what the best tactic is to use," Giroro answered, looking back to her. He knew he had to keep her safe, he couldn't lose anyone else.

"Poor Gocho," Tamama muttered as Giroro vanished into the forest.

"We've got to get back into there!" Keroro shouted, jumping up and clenching his fists. "This is no time to get depressed, even if they are really strong and have weapons a lot cooler than ours! ….They are really cool, aren't they? Grr, why's everybody cooler than we are, it's not fair, we're the stars of the show!"

Kururu had his laptop pulled out now, and had taken a seat on the ground, a ways away from the group. He was reading over stats, figuring out exactly how strong Kirere was at her maximum power, and he was not pleased by the results he was getting. Keroro's shouting wasn't helping much, either.

"It's still Kirere in there, right?" Fuyuki asked as Haruki now attempted to show Koyuki how to work his lighter after the young girl had put together wood for a fire. "So wouldn't she have her same weaknesses?"

"Her weakness was everything," Tamama answered. "It sure didn't act like her. That thing was way too quiet to be her."

"True. All of the bodily harm she's caused me in the past has been accidental up until that one point," Keroro nodded.

"We have to think of a way to get that bracelet," Dororo said as he sat cross-legged in front of the fire. Haruki had given up on showing Koyuki how to work the lighter, and was stunned as the girl made a spark with two pieces of flint, and in no time had a good fire kindling.

"That would involve getting those two guards away from him, kukuku!"

"Hey, I'm gonna look for some water," Haruki stood from the fire and walked into the forest without another word from anyone.

It wasn't hard finding Giroro. He was a bright red beacon in a gray and blue forest, after all. The corporal was by a small stream, collecting his thoughts as he polished his rifle at the side of the stream. He was starting to wear down the finish from where he was polishing.

"What do you want?" Giroro didn't even turn to Haruki as he heard the mechanic walk up behind him.

"So she's your daughter? I had no clue… I thought she was Four-eyes' kid."

"She is. That is, she's both of ours. This doesn't even concern you," Giroro snapped, near-snapping as Haruki took a seat beside him.

"I gotcha. Well, I won't judge. Love is love, right?"

"It's not like that! Why would you even think that?! I hate that cretin with every bone in my body!" Giroro snarled. "…You're of no use to us, we don't need you here."

"Yeah, I've heard that line before. I don't think I met your kid by accident….. Mr. Megalomaniac offered me a lot of money to turn her in. I need it, God knows I need it, but I didn't take it. She wouldn't have done that to me. Listen, I can tell that you don't like me, but I still want to help. She's my buddy and she's the first friend I've had in a long, long time. I don't want to lose that."

"You're a fool."

"You're ugly," Haruki shot back. "So… What do we do?"

"I can't harm her."

"Nah, I can't either. But if we get that bracelet from what's-his-face, we shouldn't have to."

"And you would suggest that how?"

"Well… On TV shows, don't they usually have some kind of diversion?"

Giroro's head shot up then, and he looked straight at Haruki. Without another word the red Keronian rose and ran back to camp.

"What? What'd I say? Wait, did I actually have a good idea?! Hey, Red, wait up!"

"Keroro!" Giroro called out as he rushed into the camp. "We need to get them out! Then we—Ngh!"

All fell back suddenly as a great gust came up, and the mansion itself parted in half.

"They stole that idea from us! They copied!" Keroro shouted as he gripped onto a well-planted shrub in order to keep from blowing back into the woods.

Giroro had dug in his hunting knife into a nearby tree, and grabbed onto Natsumi as she went flying. She put her arms around him and both held on for dear life, and watched as a large silver and green saucer rose up and hovered there a moment. Its intense rotations were the source of the miniature windstorm, and the storm ended just as soon as the saucer took off.

"Ouch!" all hit the ground suddenly, many landing on top of one another. Tamama was ready to kill Haruki as the hefty mechanic landed on him once again.

"Teicho-dono, they're headed back to Tokyo if they're going that direction!" Dororo called out as he rose up.

"Bastard, get off!" Tamama growled to Haruki as the little black Keronian pushed off the mechanic.

"We've got to go!" Giroro shouted.

"Come on!" Fuyuki motioned to the Pekoponian transport ship, which they'd taken to Osaka. All climbed in, and they were quickly off again, on the tail of the saucer.

"Damn, what are they driving, anyway?!" Giroro asked as they followed the ship at their maximum power.

"Kukuku! It's from the Gamma 7 galaxy," Kururu answered as he continued to type wildly on the keyboard.

"Halt! You're entering restricted airspace! This airspace is property of the Nishizawa Peach Group!" came on the frequency suddenly as they zoomed back to Tokyo. Tamama immediately lit up.

"Momochi! It's us! It's us!"

"Give me that!" was heard over the microphone in a gruff voice that could have only been Momoka. "T-Tama-chan!? What're you doing all the way out here?!"

"It's a long story, but you can't shoot down that ship! Ki-chi's on it!" Tamama answered. "We've just got to stop them, because some bad guy's got her!"

"We can try to disable them," Momoka suggested in her sweet voice, and just as soon switched over to her gruff evil Momoka. "Well!? You heard me, didn't you!?"

The panic yelps of her guards could be heard in the background, followed by the sound of rushing about.

"Thank you, Nishizawa-san!" Fuyuki called out.

"F-Fuyuki-kun's there, too?! We'll make sure no one's injured!" Momoka reassured them, and within moments the sky about them was littered with fighter jets, all sporting Peach Group emblems on their sides.

"That's the diversion we needed," Giroro said aloud to himself, and sat up from his chair. "Hey, Idiot! How do you change the frequencies on this?!"

"Eh? Kukuku, Senpai's looking to make a phone call?" Kururu sat back from his keyboard and looked up at Giroro.

"Just do it!"

"Fine, here, kuuukukuku!" Kururu stood from his seat and allowed Giroro to sit.

"I hope he's in range," Giroro muttered as he adjusted the frequency. Sure enough, moments later there was a puzzled Garuru on the other side of the screen.

"We're in the middle of training exercises," Garuru said bluntly.

"Nii-chan," Giroro bent his head down. "I…. We need your help. It's Kirere. She's in trouble, and… It's bigger than we can handle. I need your help."

"…Taruru. Prepare to enter Pekopon's atmosphere. Stat."

"S-so this is seriously the plan, Gocho?" Keroro looked at the Garuru platoon's emergency escape pod and studied it.

"It doesn't have any weaponry on ship, but it will get you where you need to go," Garuru explained as Taruru and Pururu took care of last-minute details behind him. "We provided you some weapons for when you get on the ship, but they're pretty-low power, too. Things we use to train with, usually."

"Taruru, what'd you do with those weapons for them?" Pururu asked quietly, and the private-first class looked over to his superior.

"Oh, I took care of it!" Taruru reassured her with a grin that unnerved her a bit as he looked up briefly from the computer screen he had been studying. Something about his confidence was worrisome.

"And what about you? What will you be doing?" Giroro asked aloud, drowning out all those around them.

"We can help hold them off," Garuru's pupil came into view, and looked back at the large window, where the saucer continued to be slowed by ever-pounding Nishizawa Peach Group fighter jets. "They won't last that much longer, at this rate. Those Pekopon fighter jets… They might as well be throwing rocks at it."

"Nii-chan, I—"

"We can talk later. For now get in and get going," Garuru snapped before Giroro could get out another word. "This is Garuru Chui to the main ship, do you copy?"

"Yes," was Zoruru's only reply. "We copy."

"Stay prepared to launch in case we need extra firepower. We're going to see what we can do with this D-grade junk as of now."

"Kuku!" Kururu only gave a laugh as he walked into the escape pod, following Dororo and Tamama.

"Wow, they said Kirere got lost a lot, but I never knew so many people would go out of their way to protect someone so accident-prone!" Taruru said in amazement. "You think they'd get tired of it after a while!"

"…Go earn your paycheck and convince me I shouldn't make it so you're working a desk job the rest of your career, Taruru," was Garuru's answer. Taruru saluted nervously and ran to the front of the Pekopon suit transport ship.

"You're more on edge than usual," Pururu added with a small smile, and she, too went to the front of the ship.

"Oji-sama!" Mois's voice rang out as she glided into the open cargo hull door on her staff, dressed in his schoolgirl disguise. "Could you say, a speedy ride over?"

"Mois-dono!" Keroro called out. From inside the Garuru Platoon escape pod there came a kick and a scream, a scream that sounded vaguely like Tamama's.

"Wow, sure are a lot of Pekoponians on here…" Taruru said aloud as he began to go over the ship's operations. "And an Angol, too!"

Mois said nothing as she took a seat next to him, but her expression was serious as she put on her headset.

"Giroro! After the manual override, make sure to switch on the invisibility shield. That ought to give you a little more time," Garuru called out to his younger brother.

Giroro nodded, and then shut the door behind him. A few moments later, the ship was off and out of the cargo hold.

"I hope they know what they're doing, Fuyuki," Natsumi sighed as she watched from the back of the pilot's hull. "…Fuyuki?" She looked to her left, and saw only a smiling Koyuki. To her right, an astounded Haruki, eagerly watching all of the aliens at work. After a few moments, it was apparent he was nowhere on the ship. "Fuyuki!"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

"Ah, now just a short ride until we get there!" Keroro stretched and sat back in his seat. "A short ride to what is to be a long, impending doom."

"Gunso-san, why didn't we just use one of our ships to get on board, why did we have to get Garuru Chui's?" Tamama asked, looking over to his superior officer.

"Kukuku! The goal is not to kill her. We don't want to be conspicuous," Kururu answered. All then jumped at the sound of a banging from a storage unit, and Keroro cautiously walked over and opened it.

Fuyuki fell out, much to everyone's horror, and looked over to Keroro after gaining his bearings. "F-Fuyuki-dono!"

"What?!" Giroro snapped. "How the hell did you even get on here!?"

"Gunso! I bumped my head trying to stand up in here and accidentally fell back into that closet!" Fuyuki sat up and rubbed the back of his head.

"Terrific, he pulled a Kirere," Tamama muttered gravely.

"Great. And it's too late to turn back around now!" Giroro growled.

"What… What were you doing in here?"

"Taruru asked me if I minded putting some things on the ship, and… I just wanted to help," Fuyuki answered. "I don't feel like I've been much of one… Kezanstav-sensei… If I'd known, I would've brought the Kero Ball with me, but…."

"No one could've possibly known he was that big of a jerk," Tamama answered.

Keroro gave a sigh as he looked out the window, "The Kero Ball would have proven quite useful. It looks as though you're stuck here now, though, Fuyuki-dono."

"That's okay," Fuyuki answered. "So do you think we'll get Kirere-chan back this way?"

"Kuku! No one had any other ideas," Kururu replied.

"We've got to. We can't let one rogue Pekoponian get away with this," Giroro answered.

"It looks as though we're coming up to it, Teicho-dono!" Dororo called out.  
"How are we going to get into there?" Fuyuki wondered aloud as they now sat under the much larger ship.

"Gero… A little bartering," Keroro answered seriously. Giroro's eyes went wide.

"What?! Keroro! What're you thinking of bartering, you have nothing he wants unless—"

"Relax, Red Dharma!" Keroro waved his hand flippantly at Giroro. "You really shouldn't worry so much, it's not healthy for you!"

"Kuku, Teicho, shall I get it?"

"Indeed you shall, Kururu Socho!"

Kezanstav looked down from the large metal chair in the center of the spaceship, down to the numerous screens that served as the only light in the room. Both of the Keronians typed away at the computers while he sat watching their progress.

The fighter jets were no match for his spacecraft, and their numbers were dwindling. There was a green, blocky ship in the distance, which he knew that no one would be foolish enough to seriously consider using against such an advanced ship, and Keron saucer a distance away from them. Even the best Keronian fighter ship would have a rough time against what Kezanstav had, though.

"There's someone under us," came a droned, dull voice from Kirere.

"What's that now?" Kezanstav sat upright in his chair, and saw the tiny ship directly beneath them. "Close up on that, immediately!"

She nodded, and did just that, and Keroro came into range, holding what looked like a small black box, with a yellow star upon it. He had a wide Cheshire cat smile as he looked directly back at the camera.

"Gero gero gero! Foolish Pekoponian! Settling on Pekopon's crummy mysteries when he could have all of Keron's right here!" Keroro laughed. "Geeeeero gero ge! Maybe the universe's if you harnessed its full power!"

"What is that Stupid Frog doing?!" Natsumi wondered aloud as they heard and watched the same exchange from their position.

Garuru said nothing, but one of the lenses in his visor cracked a bit.

Taruru noted this, and gulped, "I… I think they're going off-plan."

"Gero gero gero! Kezanstav-dono! It's all yours!" Keroro laughed, and tossed it up and down in his hand. "Just let me in so we can talk like gentlemen and don't send one of your goons out here to rough me up or worse, and we've got a deal."

"I don't have a good feeling about this," Giroro said from inside the ship. "That idiot's going to get himself killed."

Much to Giroro's surprise, the bottom of the ship opened after a few moments, allowing them access in. He still didn't have a good feeling about Keroro's plan, though.

Kezanstav met them inside, after the ship had shut once more. Keroro hopped down from the top of the ship and skipped over to the much larger Pekoponian.

"My apologies for my rude behavior earlier, first off!" Keroro began with a grin. Kezanstav's expression was unmoving.

Fuyuki went to the exit door of the Garuru platoon ship, but Giroro quickly answered with, "Wait. Don't go anywhere just yet."

"Now what… What is that, exactly?" Kezanstav brushed off Keroro's apology along with everything else the sergeant said, and instead concentrated upon the box Keroro held.

"A Kero box," Keroro answered with a grin proudly. "It's given to every platoon captain as they're given assignment! This one is mine."

"And you're… Willing to part with it so simply?"

"Well, there is one thing we'd like back… More like my niece, gero. She's quite vital to our platoon, you see," Keroro replied. "Oh, there she is! Hiii Kirere-chan!" He waved to the young girl, who now stood behind Kezanstav with the other Keronian at her side. There was no reaction from her, and Keroro's waving hand fell a few moments later weakly. "Uhh… I suppose not."

"…You're willing to trade me the secrets to your military for one single member of your crew…" Kezanstav thought this over. "…Open the box."

"What?! You… You give us Kiere-chan, first!"

"I said to just open it, not to give it to me… Why, is there some reason you can't?" Kezanstav looked down at Keroro harshly.

"Well, I… Hey!" the teal Keronian came up from behind Keroro, grabbing hold of Keroro's arms by looping his own underneath them. Keroro yelled and kicked, but this didn't stop Kirere from walking over to him and ripping the box out of his hand.

"Ki-Kirere-chan! Wait! Don't!" Keroro yelled out as she turned away from him and began to walk to Kezanstav. She looked back at Keroro dully a moment, and then finished walking to Kezanstav, and handed him the small black box.

"Let's see now…" Kezanstav opened the simple box, and his smile fell. "What… What is this…? Junk?!"

He pulled out an assembled Gunpla model, and growled, clenching it in his fist. Kirere's eyes opened a bit as she registered it, as if something clicked within her, but moments later they changed to back to their same blue, dull haze.

"J-Junk!? That may not be the most complex model, but it's still a work of art!" Keroro shouted, still struggling against his captor. "You—"

Without another word Keroro went flying across the room, hitting roughly against wall of the circular room and then landing with a loud 'thump!'.

There was no noise afterward, only Kirere stood there, her hand still raised from where she had smacked Keroro hard enough to send him flying across the large room at full-speed.

"Gunso!" Fuyuki shouted in horror.

"Keroro!" Giroro opened up the hatch, and he, Dororo, and Tamama rushed out. Kururu remained behind at the wheel, and continued to watch this unfold from his spot.

"Heh," he muttered, and sat back in his seat.

"Kirere! Stop!" Giroro jumped out of the ship and ran up to her, gun drawn at Kezanstav. "You take that thing off of her right this instant!"

"Heh, you realize that ship your humans are on I could blow up with a snap of my fingers, right?" Kezanstav looked down at Giroro and grinned.

"That'll be a little hard without fingers," Giroro answered, stone-faced.

"You're a tough little one," Kezanstav said aloud, clearly impressed. "Romama. Take care of these three."

The teal Keronian moved at this, and vanished, appearing quickly in front of Tamama, Giroro, and Dororo.

"No you don't!" Giroro growled as Kezanstav turned and walked away from them, Kirere floating at his side. He was blocked by the teal Keronian, but the Keronian fighter was quickly knocked aside by an attack from Tamama.

"Giroro-dono, go! We've got this!" Dororo called out as he drew his sword, and the teal Keron fighter did the same with his ancient saber. Giroro nodded, and took off after Kezanstav and Kirere.

"Ohhh… My head… She's worse than Natsumi-dono, and I thought I'd never be able to say that about someone! Really, if they thought one little smack would do me in…" Keroro groaned and sat up, rubbing his reddened cheek. "She gets that from Giroro Gocho… Eh? Kururu Socho?"

Indeed, standing above him Kururu was busy at work, his headphones fully extended and the wires plugged into the alien ship's system.

"Kuku! And they say I like to nap on the job," Kururu laughed as he went typing away. "Giroro Senpai went after Kirere."

"Eh? What about Dororo Heicho and Tamama Nitohei?" Keroro stood up, and just as soon gave a yell and fell back to the ground as one of Tamama's jealousy balls bounced off the wall where he stood. Kururu remained unmoving.

"Kuku! Looks like things are getting serious."

"Gunso!" Fuyuki ran over to Keroro and Kururu, and ducked down as another of Tamama's attacks fired in their direction. "I saw where they went!"

"Let's go, then!" Keroro hopped up, and both rushed away from Kururu, leaving the scientist to his own work.

"Neh!" Dororo clashed swords with the Keron fighter, and jumped back, his sword now in defense mode. Tamama was panting heavily, but still managed to send out another impact.

'I've never seen a fighter of his caliber…' Dororo thought, a brief streak of worry passing through him. 'I don't… I don't know if…'

Then there was a sudden gray flash, and the teal Keronian was blown back, and the armor on his chest sliced clear across.

"You…. You have no fight with this one. I, however, do. And I cannot let you get in my way of that," Zoruru clenched his fist and stood across from the opposing Keronian.

"Who… Where did he come from…?" Dororo wondered aloud.

Kururu gave a growl as he found himself still locked out of the system. In fact, he'd ended up setting off the security system.

"Pupupu! Is the old man having trouble with something this simple?"

"What?!" Kururu jerked his head up sharply as he immediately recognized the voice. Tororo. But why was he…?

"What're you doing here, you little gnat?"

"This is Gamma 7 technology, it's designed to have two people working it at once, pupupu! Designed especially to block out people with egos like yours! I'll take care of the security, since you seem to be failing so horribly with it. You concentrate on what you need to."

"And why are you helping me, might I ask, kukuku?"

"I-I have my reasons! Now shut up, I have to get to work!" Tororo shouted.

"Kuku… I don't need your help, but if you're really looking for something to do, I suppose you could tie up my loose ends… Kuuukukuku!" Kururu answered with his classic laugh.

"That…. That!.. UGHHH!." Tororo grit his teeth at this a bit, but kept his concentration on the security system. He gave a self-satisfied laugh as he found himself now able to access all of the security cameras on ship.

There were enough cameras to fill all of his screens, but he immediately focused on one, and brought it to his main screen. It was a light-haired male Pekoponian, with a female Keronian floating beside him. It took him a few moments to register who it was, but when he did, he fell back into his mound of junk food wrappers, jerking back up and zooming in to get a better look. It indeed was Kirere.

"She… She got older… And… And…" he choked; he couldn't even finish his sentence.

He also couldn't find the record button on his screen fast enough.

"Gunso!" Fuyuki grabbed onto Keroro and pulled him back, just in time for Keroro to avoid getting squished against the wall by a piece of heavy computer machinery. Keroro gave a frightened yell, and sat up, shaking.

"Wha… What the…?" Keroro grunted and lifted himself up over the rubbish, and was able to see the fight going on without being seen by either Giroro or Kirere. Kezanstav was nowhere to be seen in what looked like a main control room.

"Stop this, now!" Giroro snarled at Kirere, who only remained floating in midair and staring down at him like he was a worthless insect. "Kirere! Stop!"

Another computer lifted itself off of the ground and went flying toward him. Giroro managed to roll out of the way of this one, and rose up, shaken. It was clear from the looks of him that not every one of Kirere's hits had been a miss.

"…Fine. You want to fight, we do it with these," Giroro lifted up his gun as he stood, bent over a bit and his breathing labored.

"Fair enough," she floated down, and raised up her own gun, the very one Giroro had given her. "It was getting a little boring just trying to squish you, anyway."

"Gi-Giroro Goucho…" Fuyuki said in a weak, astonished voice.

Kirere's head turned at the sound of the voices, and she shot. Keroro gave another scream and he and Fuyuki only hit the floor just in time. There was a clear molten hole of metal where the two had been standing.

"Keroro! Fuyuki!" Giroro shouted. "What are you doing?! Get out of here!"

"Right!" Keroro nodded, and broke off into a run for his life, Fuyuki not far behind him. Keroro, however, stopped short, allowing Fuyuki to run into the room. Keroro didn't follow behind. He only shut the door and then leaned against it, shutting his eyes.

"Sorry… Fuyuki-dono…" Keroro said in a weak voice, and then looked back over his shoulder to Kirere and Giroro's fighting, drowning out Fuyuki's pounding of the door as best as possible.


	13. Chapter 13

t'.

Kirere pulled out her gun and fired again, and Giroro found brief sanctuary behind an uprooted computer. He had another gun on him, but this one was smaller, and didn't fire with near the proficiency of the first one. But it would have to do.

More wires snaked out from the ceiling above him, and Giroro jumped back as they all lunged right for him, instead becoming entangled with themselves.

"Just… Die already!" Kirere growled, her patience waning.

"You're not Kirere. You might look and sound like her, but you're not Kirere. You're just being used as a puppet by that Pekoponian," Giroro said darkly, quickly disabling the safety on his gun and standing in front of her, panting deeply. He knew that if things kept up like they were going, she would get her wish.

"How would you even know what she was like!? You divide you time between a harebrained invasion and that woman! Who would want that planet, or that girl?!"

"Heh. That definitely isn't my Kirere. She loves Pekopon," Giroro gave a small laugh, but found it a bit painful to do so. "And she loves Natsumi, too. She wants to be just as strong as Natsumi one day, she's said so herself."

"That Kirere was a fool, just like you are," she pointed her gun at Giroro, and he did the same.

"…I'm sorry you felt that way, like you were of no use to us," Giroro's voice dropped. "You may not be at my level in certain things, but you surpass me in others, even at your age."

"If you're trying to beg me not to kill you—"

"I love you," Giroro looked dead ahead at her, and Kirere faltered back a moment, the glaze leaving her eyes for a few moments yet again. Keroro stopped his scratching at the door long enough to quietly watch this exchange in awe. "We all… Love you. Even that idiot, even if he doesn't show it, there's something there. I don't know how Kururu's mind works, but he thinks of you are more an experiment. He's not fooling anyone by saying otherwise."

"Sh-shut up! Shut up, shut up!" she yelled and stomped one of her feet down, like a young girl pitching a fit, "Shut up now!"

"I love you, so I have to try this," Giroro threw his gun across the room, and this briefly distracted Kirere while he lunged for her, gripping onto the collar around her neck.

At this point, two things happened. Giroro pulled off the collar, and Kirere hit him with the heavy wrench/gun as hard as she could, sending him flying behind a heap of rubble. Giroro vanished into the rubble, and Keroro remained there, motionless in horror as Kirere hung her head a moment, then looked up and staggered toward Giroro.

"G-Giroro-san?" she knelt down at Giroro's side, and shook him a bit. "Daddy?" she then looked up at Keroro, whose relaxed position became tense with fright as she looked up at him. "O-Ojisan? What happened!?"

"K-Kiere-chan? Are… Are you still evil?" Keroro continued to inch away as he asked this, and she looked truly puzzled. Her eyes were wide and cheerful yet again, and back to their bright blueness, but they were confused. She then looked around the spaceship, and back at Keroro.

"What happened?!"

"Kirere-chan…" Keroro walked over to her, and bent down, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You…"

"Did I…?"

"Ugh…" Giroro flipped over, and both Keroro and Kirere gave a yelp, Keroro grabbing onto her from behind and using her as a shield momentarily, then easing as Giroro once again fell silent, but was clearly breathing.

"Gero?... He… He just passed out!" Keroro exclaimed, followed by a sigh of relief. "Whew! That's a lot less paperwork I have to file!"

"What happened?" she looked up at Keroro, and then stood, eye-level to the sergeant in her adult form. "…Why're you so short…?"

"Well, I…" Keroro scratched the back of his head and laughed. Just as he went to explain this, a white light enveloped Kirere, and when it vanished, she was back to being a normal Keronian kid. "Ah! Also quite fortunate! Now we don't have to worry about you dating! Eh… What's this? Kirere-chan?"

She gripped onto Keroro around the waist and started bawling, holding onto him tight, "Does… Does this make me a baby, because I'm crying again?!"

"No, no, it just makes you Giroro Gocho's… You're just as emotional him is all," Keroro patted the young girl on the head, looked down at Giroro and studied him. She'd knocked out one of his front fangs during her battle with him. He would have to have a new false one anchored in; boy would he not be happy about that, Keroro thought with a shiver.

"Can… Can we go home now? Back to Pekopon? I don't like it here," she sniffed, and looked up at Keroro.

"Certainly! As soon as Fuyuki-dono—FUYUKI-DONO! Geeerrrooo!"

"W-wait, Ojisan! We can't leave him!" Kirere gripped onto the back of Keroro's helmet, and the sergeant went falling down to the ground instead of taking off running as he had hoped. "We have to take him with us!"

"….Do we have to? He'll wake up on his own," Keroro's shoulders slumped, and he sighed, taking up Giroro and carrying him on his back. "Ugh! He weighs a ton! …It's all of those sweet potatoes, Giroro Gocho! Natsumi-dono will never want you with the weight you're gaining!"

"…Say that again…" Keroro found a bowie knife at his neck, then, and of all things, the sergeant smiled.

"Ah! Back in the land of the living, I see, Gocho!"

"Daddy!" Kirere jumped and hugged Giroro, and both he and the sergeant went falling down onto the ground, Keroro landing on top of them.

"Off of me, idiot!" Giroro gave Keroro a swift kick in the ass, sending the sergeant flying, and then looked about, panicked. "Kirere?! Kirere!?"

"Neh…." he rolled out of the way and saw the little girl passed out; she had ended up on the very bottom of the dogpile.

Giroro gave an amused shake of the head and lifted her up into his arms, and gently pulled off the yellow visor over her eyes. It made her look too much like someone he already knew. It cracked under his feet as he ran out with Keroro; the objective was now to find the rest of the platoon.

During all of this, Fuyuki was relieved to find that after a lot of searching through long halls Kururu was now at work in the main computer room. He was about to call out happily to the Sergeant Major, but quickly ducked down behind a long row of seats that were bolted in front of the computers as he noticed they were not alone.

Kezanstav stood at the opposite end of the circular computer room, too consumed in his thoughts to notice the little yellow alien tucked under the opened computer console, much less the young boy who now sat crouched down next to him in the shadows.

"Wh-what?! What do you mean, emergency stop?!" Kezanstav yelled, pounding on the computer keyboard stood hunched over. "Like hell… Whoever you are…. I'll find you and have you hanged for this!"

"Kuku!" Kururu's shoulders shook a bit from laughter at this, but he continued typing away. "That ought to keep him busy."

"What're you doing?" Fuyuki remained hidden behind a chair anchored in the ground, and bent over Kururu's shoulder.

"Showing a brat what real talent is… Really, I have to get my fun out of 'doing something for someone else' stuff, too."

Fuyuki pushed himself a little closer to Kururu as the other Keronian, the one in the ancient Keron armor, floated in, looking beaten but still able to move all the same, albeit slower. He slunk over to Kezanstav, who immediately acknowledged him with a glare.

"Some fine work you did!" Kezanstav yelled. "Tell me you took care of them at least."

The teal Keronian only looked sideways at his master, and Kezanstav gnashed his teeth together.

"First they steal back that one little brat who likes to cry, and now you're telling me you couldn't take care of three of your own… Try to be a little more useful and boot up the emergency power, we'll try to override it."

"W-will that work?" Fuyuki asked Kururu in a whisper.

"Kuku! That or overwork the engines so much we explode," Kururu gave another laugh at Fuyuki's horrified expression.

"Blow up? Blow up! And he's cool about it!?" Tororo shouted, putting his hands on his head. "Damn it, he's always cool about it! Grr… Don't worry, you won't blow up…"

"I can still hear you, kuku! What's your sudden worry? Kuku, is there something or someone your care about on here?"

"Shut UP!" Tororo slammed down on his keyboard and went to work.

"…It's the pink one you like, isn't it? That's sort of cute. I should warn you, but... Kuukuku!"

Tororo was seething with rage at this; Kururu blowing up was looking better and better every second. 'Kirere… Please appreciate this…' he thought as he continued to work.

"Looks like it's right there," Kururu motioned over to the center of the room, where there was a large metallic circle in the center of the bottom as well as the top of the floor. The teal Keronian pressed a button on the main control panel, and another, smaller panel rose up from the ground and in front of the metallic circle. After entering a sequence of numbers, a blue beam shot out, forming a tube of pure energy.

"Kuku! That could pose a bit of a problem," Kururu admitted, but kept typing away all the same.

"Eh?" Giroro and Keroro came to a quick halt as they approached another badly-damaged room. Giroro's stop was so sudden Keroro bumped into him, and hit Giroro from behind. The sergeant went down, but Giroro remained stationary.

Zoruru was the first to burst through the rubble, slicing through a sheet of metal that he had been under.

"Hey, it's that guy not even Dororo remembers!" Keroro exclaimed, and Zoruru jerked his head back at this comment, having clearly been thrown for a loop by that.

"Damn… Him!" a hunk of metal and wires went flying, and Keroro perked up, immediately recognizing this voice.

"That homicidal tone! That could only be Tamama Nitohei!" Keroro chirped. "Looks like everyone's here!"

"Yet again, you forget someone," Dororo hopped down from the ceiling, and landed in front of them. "I noticed the ship managed to stop."

"We can attack them from our ship," Zoruru added, flexing his metallic arm and noting a squeaking now as he did so.

"Not yet, Fuyuki-dono is still on board!" Keroro answered quickly.

"And that fool's missing," Giroro added darkly. He looked down as Kirere stirred in his arms a bit, and she opened her eyes.

"Eh?... You're okay!" she sat up and then hopped out his arms, stumbling as she went to do so and landing on her back on the floor of the ship.

"Good to know she's back to normal," Tamama muttered as he watched this unfold from his spot. He, Dororo, and Zoruru looked worn from their battle.

"You. You got on here somehow, you go back and take her with you," Giroro looked ahead to Zoruru.

"Say… How did you get on here?" Keroro wondered aloud. Zoruru simply held up the spiked metal arm. "…Again, cooler than anything we have."

"No, I'm not going!" Kirere snapped, and turned around to Giroro. "I want to help! I did last time, I can do it!"

"Now's not the time to be stubborn," Giroro looked over his gun, and grunted as it remained jammed. It had suffered a lot of damage from his fight with Kirere.

She took the gun from his hands, and quickly disassembled it, and then reassembled it just as quickly, and passed it back to him.

"Good job. You're still not going," he said as he studied the fixed weapon. "I can't lose you again."

"Come on," Zoruru placed a hand on her shoulder, and Kirere watched as the rest of the platoon left them.

"Are they going to be all right?"

"They have to be. I have a score to settle," Zoruru answered.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"…Crap, what IS this?!" Tororo shouted as he tried once again to override the reserve energy, and he slammed his fists down on the ground. "I… This language it's written, I—"

"Kuku! Too much for you?"

"Hey, you haven't figured it out, either!" Tororo shot back. Kururu only gave a grunt at this.

"This isn't working," Kururu pulled away from his screen a bit, and Fuyuki watched as the yellow Keronian sat there, silent in thought. He turned around to look at the energy beam, and Fuyuki did the same.

"…Here. Throw these."

"Eh?!" Fuyuki took the pair of glasses and looked down at them, puzzled. "Wh-where?"

"Pretend you're the Hinata child with some ability and try for that energy beam," Kururu glanced sideways at Fuyuki a moment, and Fuyuki did a double-take, stunned.

"Hey! That's where Kirere-chan—"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Kururu's glasses were just as soon replaced, and he pushed them up on his face. Just as soon as he did this, something sliced right through the seat they'd been hiding behind. Fuyuki fell back one way and Kururu another.

"…How nice of you to join us," Kezanstav walked over, his cool regained as stared down at Fuyuki, his arms folded behind his back and the cold, confident grin on his face. "I was wondering where you'd run off to. I've been able to keep track of all the others of your little… Happy family. There's some coming this way right now, as a matter of fact!"

He stepped out of the way to reveal the screen he had been watching, and sure enough Dororo, Tamama, Keroro, and Giroro were all running towards them. He then glanced over at his Keron bodyguard, who had his blade at Kururu's neck.

"This one isn't much without his technology, is he? Almost as useless as that other one, the pink one…. I suppose you could turn him into sushi, I don't have much use for him otherwise."

A shot fired, and the sword went flying out of the teal Keronian's hand.  
"I don't like him very much, but our daughter seems to see something in him, so I suppose we could keep him around," Giroro said as he stood there with the rest of the platoon, his gun drawn.

"What?!" Kezanstav spun around and saw the screen, which showed the platoon still running down the hall.

"Time delay technology. Kuuukuku!" Kururu giggled.

"Ah, just like in Lupin III!" Keroro snapped his fingers and smiled.

"Focus, idiot! It's not the time!" Giroro shouted.

"Hehe… Right," Keroro scratched the back of his head and chuckled. "Anyway, we'll be stopping you now, Kezanstav-san. This has been fun and all, but we really have to get home."

"You really think that?"

"We've done a good enough job of kicking your ass so far!" Tamama shouted.

"Fuyuki! Your friends are adorable, but stupid. ….I see a lot of myself in you. What do you say? Stay with these fools, or finally know all of the answers to all of those questions you've had about the occult. The choice is all yours."

"The occult's great because we don't know all the answers, it's the questions that make it fun in the first place! And, and… I'd rather live a boring life with my friends than an exciting one with someone like you!" Fuyuki answered. "Gunso!"

"Eh?" Keroro barely caught the glasses as Fuyuki threw them, and looked down at them, puzzled.

"Into the energy beam!" Fuyuki called out, and was just as soon knocked down by Kezanstav's Keronian.

"Oh! That one!" Keroro nodded at this, and used an annoyed Giroro as a springboard to lunge off of, and threw the glasses into the said energy beam. The thick glasses were swallowed up soon enough, but not before refracting off some of the energy and causing it to shoot out onto the main computers. The computer Kezanstav had been standing at moments before went up into flames. Kururu gave a chuckle at this.

"A little anarchy always helps when all else fails, kuuuukuku!"

"W-what?!" Kezanstav turned around to the computer, and glared at the Keroro platoon as the backup energy now flickered. "…You… Get them! Kill them! I don't care!"

"Gunso-san? Any ideas?" Tamama looked at the sergeant, who took a step back.

"Just one, Tamama Nitohei! RUN!" Keroro turned around and ran out, followed by the rest of the platoon and Fuyuki, who were now being pursued by the lone Keron bodyguard. That was everyone, save for Kururu. He got a nice lift up by the sides, courtesy of Kezanstav.

"You really are an annoying little bastard," Kezanstav muttered, and Kururu gave a laugh.

"I try, kuuukuku!" Kururu laughed.

"We're not much different, either, right? Tortured geniuses forced to live on a planet of insects?" Kezanstav moved out of the flaming room, and into the hall with the yellow Keronian. "You could fix this all, couldn't you? Come on, you don't care about those fools, now, do you? You're too smart to!"

"Kuku! I'm just smart enough to not go flaunting about it when I do. Really, who wants to bother with this all the time?!" Kezanstav's grip became tighter, and Kururu flinched a bit, and struggled to grab hold of his remote. If he could just…

BAM! A direct hit. Kezanstav's eyes rolled back, and he fell to the ground, as did Kururu, who sat up and took a moment to take in what he was seeing. There was Kirere with her wrench, and behind her on the same small saucer Garuru, who was working the controls.

"That's going to be two hugs!" she announced with a smile.

"Tch, I think I would've preferred him killing me, kuku!" Kururu stood, and placed a hand on his back as it popped. "Kuku, my back had been bothering me, anyway!"

Garuru hopped off of his saucer, and looked to Kirere. "You get back to the ship, I'll take care of him myself."

"Got it. Come on, we've got to get back!" Kirere called out to Kururu, who slid up and then lay there on his side.

"Really this is more work than I usually put in in a Pekopon year, kuku!" he laughed as they took off. "I didn't know you could fly one of these."

"I don't know all the buttons, but I know how to make it go forward!" she answered. Kururu gave a yell as he nearly flew off when she sent them flying down the hall she and Garuru had come from full-speed, and Garuru watched them until they vanished.

He then heard Kezanstav groan and begin to move, and the lieutenant turned around, and looked down at the Pekoponian in disgust. "Don't move. Don't even try to move. Rest assured that whatever I do to you I can make look like an accident, or justified."

"Gunso-san! He's still gaining on us!" Tamama cried. "I want to go home!"

"Me, Tamama Nitohei, me, too!" Keroro shouted.

"We… We can't keep going like this!" Fuyuki panted.

"And he doesn't look like he's going to stop, either!" Keroro moaned.

"…Dororo, if we get that collar off, he'll be out of that monster's control!" Giroro called out to the assassin as he fired back another shot, which the Keron bodyguard promptly dodged.

"If anyone has ideas, I'm open!" Keroro yelled.

"GYAAAAAA!"

"AHHHHHHHH!"

All stopped then as a pink and yellow blur came shooting down the long hall, and rammed right into the teal Keronian, before he even knew something was coming their way. Fuyuki ducked just in time, and the blur, now with a bluish-teal streak in it, continued down the hall, until it reached the end. There was a crash then, and all went to investigate.  
In a tangled mess there was a fainted Kirere, Kururu, and Keron bodyguard.

"How… How did she get back here?" Keroro wondered aloud.

"Kirere!" Giroro stepped on Kururu, who gave a squeak as he headed over to his daughter. "Are you all right?!"

"That… That was really cool," she muttered, still dazed from the crash. "I… I wanna go again."

"Nin!" Dororo took this opportunity to slice through the opposing Keronian's collar, and it fell off in several metal slices onto the ground beneath him.

"You swore to me your father taught you how to drive one of those," Garuru's voice shot through the room, a hint of annoyance as he stopped and looked over the scene. He had fresh bruises on his arms and face, but Giroro said nothing of these.

"My… My back problem's back… Kukuku!" Kururu groaned as he stood up, swaying a bit and his glasses cracked around the edges.

"We should get out of here, the fire's spreading. There's enough power left to where it will convert to autopilot and then hopefully be able to make it out of Pekopon's atmosphere. We'll meet you down at loading," Garuru announced calmly.

"Right," Giroro nodded, and Garuru disappeared down the hall. He then looked at Kirere. "How did you convince him you knew how to fly one of those?"

"I… Memorized the names of some of the ooperations…" Kirere answered reluctantly.

"We need to follow Garuru-dono out of here," Dororo lifted up the passed out Keronian, and Keroro almost instantly went into a fit at this.

"What?! Why're we bringing him, too, when he spent over half of this story trying to kill us?!" Keroro snapped.

"Gunso, he was under Kezanstav's control, too. He's probably not a bad guy, either," said Fuyuki.

"Or he's a complete jerk. Either way, we have no time to wake him up and find out," Giroro answered.

"He's going to have some apologizing to do when he wakes up, that's for sure!" Keroro snapped, and all ran out with Dororo carrying their new companion.

The Pekoponian transport ship and the Garuru Platoon escape ship were both in the loading bay when they finally made their way down.

"Fuyuki!" Natsumi called out as she stood in the back of the open ship.

"Nee-chan!" Fuyuki called back out, and he was the first to jump on, followed by Keroro, Tamama, Dororo, Kirere, and Kururu.

"Where did that Pekoponian go, or do I want to even know what you did?" Giroro asked as he saw his brother standing solitary, his arms folded as he watched his Platoon loading into the escape ship.

"He escaped. This is where we part ways. I must admit, this was good practice for my Platoon," Garuru walked over to Giroro, and looked back at Kirere, who was already being greeted by a relieved Haruki with a large hug. "It's a shame she won't have a military career."

"She's clumsy, now, but she'll be able to control herself, and her ability, as she gets older," Giroro answered. "She has a lot of growing to do yet."

"I think you mistook that as a prediction, not a fact," Garuru said sternly, and Giroro's expression immediately shifted. "I care about her, too, and that's why if she ever attempts to enter the Keron military I'll make sure she does everything to not get accepted. She's too powerful. She'll either lose control, or be used, Giroro. It's for her own good."

"She would never let that happen, and I never would, either," Giroro grit his teeth at this, and balled his fists. It was the most he'd felt like punching Garuru in years.

"Really now," Garuru's tone was flat and unamused. The Gamma 7 ship began to shake beneath their feet, and Garuru turned to his brother, "It's getting ready to take off. Take care."

Giroro remained there a moment, then hopped onto the ship as Natsumi called out for him. They then shut the door, and both ships exited the loading bay.

"Bye, Garuru Ojisan, Pururu-san, Zoruru-san!" Kirere was waving out the front window as she watched Garuru's ship take off. No one questioned why she left Taruru's name out.

"Kuku, they can't hear you," Kururu said from his seat, and Kirere hopped over to him. "…What?" he grunted as the little girl closed up to his face, a large grin spreading across her mouth.

"I heard you say you cared about me," she poked him in the shoulder and grinned.

"Tch, you heard wrong. I was losing oxygen," Kururu waved her off. "Let me be, the adults have to work."

"…I'm not sad to see that thing go," Giroro looked out the window and saw the large saucer fly out of Earth's atmosphere as they headed back him.

"How're you guys going to explain that? I mean, a lot of people probably saw it on the news," Haruki wondered aloud as he sat back in between Tamama and Dororo.

"We'll find a way," Giroro reassured him, and he looked over at Natsumi, puzzled, as she began to chuckle. "What? What's so funny?"

"Well, um…" Natsumi looked offward, and Giroro frowned.

"Eh?" Kirere stopped bouncing around the ship long enough, and looked at her right glove. She pulled it off and shook it a few times, and out fell a tooth. It was sharp, and…

Giroro went bright red, a mixture of embarrassment and anger. He felt inside his mouth, and sure enough, he was right; it was indeed one of his own. Natsumi placed a hand over her mouth, and the rest of the Keroro Platoon looked away, aside from Kururu, who gave a shrill laugh.

"T-this belongs to you…" Kirere picked up the tooth and handed it to Giroro.

"I-It's all right, Gocho, look at the work Kururu Socho did on me, this front one's fake!" Keroro grinned, and Giroro threw the tooth at Keroro as hard as possible. It lodged in the middle of his helmet.

"Really that wasn't necessary," said Keroro with a glare.

"Hrm?" Fuyuki heard his cell phone go off as they sat there in the ship, Keroro attempting to extract the tooth from his helmet, and reached into his pocket. "Nishizawa-san?"

"Momochi?" said Tamama aloud with surprise as Fuyuki answered.

"Nishizawa-san? Eh? Don't worry about it? Um, yes, as soon as we get home we will!... She wants us to turn on the news as soon as we get home."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

And soon enough they were home, all beaten, worn, and when Aki arrived home, having snacks and drinks and sitting around the television, watching the morning news intently.

"In a dazzling scene this evening, we got a first-hand look at the up and coming live-action adaptation of a popular science fiction anime. The Nishizawa Peach Group lent out their airspace for this event, but they have declined to comment as to why there was no warning given, much less what film was being shot," said the reporter.

"Come on, Admiral Geroro!" Keroro cried, hopping up on the coffee table excitedly.

"You fool, get down!" Giroro snapped as he joined the group in the living room with Kururu, the red soldier rubbing his aching cheek.

"Kuku, I'll send you the bill, I hope your insurance is good," Kururu took a seat laid out on the floor, and watched the news with his same dull expression as always.

"What, what have you all been up to? I've been trying to call…" Aki asked as she looked over the scene. "My motorcycle broke down…"

"Sorry, Mama… It's… A really long story. We'll tell you all about it in a little while, we promise," Fuyuki replied, putting a hand behind his head. "Nishizawa-san?"

"Oh, I hope I'm not disturbing anyone!" Momoka waved apologetically. "I just figured since I was in the neighborhood I would bring by some treats."  
"Did… Did you say your motorcycle broke down?" Haruki stood, and Aki nodded. "You… It wouldn't happen to be here, would it?"

"It's right out front," she pointed over his shoulder, and Haruki lit up.

"I'd gladly fix it for you, gratis," Haruki grinned, "Your kids are awesome, by the way."

He cringed at Natsumi's glare, but kept a weak and hopeful smile.

"Well… You can't beat free, can you?" Aki set down her helmet on the coffee table and stretched.

"Yo, Kirere! I'm gonna need my assistant on this, too," Haruki nodded to her.

"Me?" she blinked.

"Yeah, c'mon! You're cheap labor! We'll pull it around back, so no one sees me working on it with a little alien," Haruki answered, and patted her on the head as they walked out, Kirere skipping out happily.

'She really… Seems to have a good time with those sorts of things….' Giroro thought, and almost immediately his thoughts traveled back to Garuru's words. Their family had been military for generations…

He was torn from his thoughts as Keroro hopped from the coffee table and onto something new; the sergeant suddenly seemed more than a little irritated.

"Kuku! Look who woke up!"

It was the teal Keronian, and he was looking about the room, clearly dazed and confused by all of the people staring back at him. Their main confusion was that with his armor gone, it was obvious he wasn't much more than a child, either. He still had his tail and mainly white face. At most he was somewhere in between Kirere and Tamama's ages.

He had abandoned his Keronian armor and now wore a simple red bandanna with a purple wheel-shaped symbol on it, much different from the symbol on his stomach, which was purple as well, and looked almost like a cross, save for the bottom, which was shorter and rounded off.

As his eyes fell on Keroro, the sergeant stopped, and shivered a bit, "My, how… Creepy…" From the cold chill that crept through the room, this was the general consensus.

His eyes were catlike, large and golden in color, with small black dots as pupils. As they scanned the room, they saw anything from fear, to confusion, to general unease amongst the group.

"Hey, I—Oh, he woke up!" Kirere chirped, and the teal Keronian turned around, and looked her over now. "And you're short, now!" she added, holding up her hand and showing was only half a head taller than her, at most.

"K-Kirere…" Giroro shut his eyes. "You—"

"Do you have a name?" she tilted her head to the side, and he took a step back from her. "Mine's Kirere, but I like to spell it 'Kilele' when I write it out!"

"…You totally flunked that whole 'don't talk to strangers' thing…" Tamama announced.

"She just doesn't retain, sometimes…" Giroro sighed, and shut his eyes.

"Eh? Oh!" Kirere jumped back as the strange Keronian rocked back and forth a bit, then fell back to the floor. "I killed him!"

"Kuku! He's just fainted," Kururu bent down to feel the boy's pulse, and stood.

"Probably the stress," Giroro folded his arms and looked down at him while Tamama dug into the bag of muffins Momoka had brought.

"Let's make him a bed in Fuyuki's room," Aki lifted him up and tilted her head, smiling. "You all made another friend, or is this a big brother for you, Kirere-chan?"

"Nah, he's enough," Kirere glared at Tamama, who stopped eating briefly and exchanged the glare.

"Come on, let's get you some more rest," Aki held him like a small child and walked up the stairs with him.

"I'll give you a hand," Natsumi stood, and Giroro gave a small blush. She was so good with children….

When the strange Keronian finally woke up, he batted his eyes open, and found himself staring back up at a poster of an alien outstretching his hand to him. He gave a start, and tumbled off of Fuyuki's bed, still tangled within the blankets.

"I told you it was a bad idea to put that up there," Natsumi chided Fuyuki as she stood in the bedroom doorway with her hands on her hips. Fuyuki rolled away from his desk, and watched the Keronian still struggling with the sheets.

"Yeah, I'll take it down."

"Ohhhh he's awake now. Let's hope you don't go fainting again," Keroro entered cheerily with his apron on and a feather duster in his hand. What he didn't know was Keroro was happy about this because it finally gave him an opportunity to seek his revenge.

As he looked around, the other Keronian noticed there were even more people in the room than he thought. The yellow one with glasses was on the floor, his back turned to him and typing away on the computer, while the pink one with headphones and gloves laid down on the floor, watching the one on the computer work.

"You slept two whole days!" Kirere announced as she remained at her spot on the floor. "We thought you were gonna make it for three, at the rate you were going!"

"Kuku! I finally found some information on him, Teicho, and it's interesting," Kururu announced, turning around to Keroro.

"Kirere? Hrm, looks like he woke up, too," Giroro walked in, and looked at the young boy.

"So what's your name, anyway?" Kirere asked him, and he only looked downward at the floor.

"I think I remember Kezanstav sensei calling him something…" Fuyuki added.

"Romama, kuuukuku!" Kururu chuckled, and the Keronian jerked his head back up.

"Yeah, that's it!" Fuyuki snapped his fingers and nodded. "Romama!"

"Romama? Hrm… Sounds familiar," Keroro said with a bit of thought, tapping his foot and duster in unison as he processed this name.

"Wait. Military history class," Giroro blinked, and looked to Keroro, whose mouth fell open in surprise. "M-Major Romama, he…. That's impossible, though! The Romama Platoon landed…."

"Such a long time ago," Keroro finished, and all looked to the boy now.

"Eh? How long ago are we talking, Gunso?" Fuyuki asked.

"Kuku! It'd be the equivalent of Julius Caesar walking into the room for a Pekoponian," Kirere's eyes shone at this, and she hopped up, and looked Romama over.

"…You don't look so old…"

"That would explain his fighting style!" Dororo chimed in, and all came to a start at the sound of the lance corporal's voice.

"D-Dororo Heicho!" Keroro exclaimed, "When did you get here?"

"I-I've been here…" Dororo sputtered weakly, and his eyes then met with Romama's. "The Demon Child."

"Part of the original Pekopon investigation team," Kururu added.

"O-original team?" Natsumi repeated.

"Before it was decided to invade Pekopon, some investigation teams were sent out… The Romama Platoon was the first platoon to go to investigate Pekopon, but—" Giroro was cut off by Dororo.

"They crashed landed and lost contact with Keron," Dororo finished. "It's always been a mystery as to what happened them, exactly."

"Wow, an unsolved alien mystery! This is two occult mysteries in one, wow!" Fuyuki gasped in awe.

"Kuku! The trips to Pekopon took longer, then, so they were placed in age-suspension, a staple of ships then," Kururu added. "It looks like he was trapped in it until recently."

"So where's the rest of your platoon?" Kirere asked, and Romama again looked away from her. "…Oh…. S-sorry…."

"Well, we'll gladly allow Romama Shosa (Shosa=major) a spot here for the time being!" Keroro took Romama's hand and patted it.

"That's awfully nice for someone who wanted to rough him up first chance he got," Natsumi said suspiciously. Keroro stopped, and his eyes went wide. He met with Romama's glare moments later.

"He's just kissing ass now because it's Demon Romama he's dealing with," Giroro muttered.

Romama pulled is hand away from Keroro. Kirere then grabbed Romama's hands and righted him, and then pulled him out of the room.

"Come on, I want to show you my room!" she announced, and he followed her, stumbling a little as she led him out.

"Kirere, I—" she was gone before Giroro could finished. Keroro remained there, half-bent over, and looked at the doorway worriedly.

"Ku-Kururu Socho, how positive are you that that's Romama Shosa?" Keroro fidgeted a bit, and Kururu laughed.

"It's a DNA match, Teicho," Kururu announced. "It's a one-hundred percent positive match."

"Well, if you have his DNA, see if he has any relatives we can drop him off on. The last thing we need is a distraction like this," Giroro answered sternly.

"Kuku! I'll have to go back to my lab for that," Kururu answered, and closed his laptop, then shuffled out of the bedroom.

"I'm going to make sure she doesn't break anything," Giroro added, and turned away. "You, too, Keroro."

"Eh? Me?"

"Yes," Giroro snapped, "Let's get to work."

"….I didn't trust that," Natsumi narrowed her eyes as only Dororo remained there in the room with her and Fuyuki.

"I hope that this isn't too much for Romama-dono to handle," Dororo folded his arms and looked contemplative.

"And look! These are my dolls…" Kirere held up a light green Keron doll and grinned proudly. "This one's from Keron, Doro-kun's Mama sent it in the last care package she sent him! …It's one of my favorites."

Romama was too busy looking about, taking in the pinks and purples. He took a seat on the bed, surprised by its softness and picking up the gray stuffed cat on her pillow. He then pulled out from beneath it what looked to be her journal, and opened it.

"No! Not… That," Kirere pulled it from his hands and held it to her chest. "S-Sorry, it's just…"

He was already across the room looking at the computer, though. It laid on her desk in pieces, a screwdriver and magnifying lamp also on the table.

"…I didn't know what else to do with it, so I'm putting it back together," she shrugged, and tossed the book beneath her bed.

"Kirere…" Giroro knocked on the door, and then opened the door. Romama was holding up another doll he had found on one of Kirere's shelves. Giroro's eye twitched; this guy was superior even to Garuru, and…

"We… We're having a meeting. Come on," Giroro motioned for her, and she and Romama walked to the meeting area, Romama looking about at everything all along the way.

"Could you say, so scary it's cute?" Mois said with a squeal as she laid eyes on Romama. She lifted him up and hugged him, and Romama's face went red with good reason.

"…M-Mois-dono, could you put the Demon Shosa down for the time being?" Keroro asked politely, and Mois did just this, and regained her station. Keroro hopped up on the podium and seemed pleased as now Tamama joined them. Romama gave one look to Tamama, and the teal Keronian's face contorted in something that looked similar to fear for a moment.

"Ah, the gang is all here, and then some! Tamama Nitohei, I'd like you to meet the demon fighter of legend, Romama Shosa!" Keroro held out an arm to Romama, who only looked uncomfortable in his seat as all eyes fell on him. "I say with this new member, resonance is in order!"

Giroro stopped, "Wait, since when did we decide—"

"GEROGEROGEROGEROGEROGERO…"

"TAMATAMATAMATAMATAMATAMA…"

"DORODORODORODORODORODORODORO…."

"KURUKURUKURUKURUKURUKURUKURU…"

"Ugh… GIROGIROGIROGIROGIROGIROGIROGIRO…"

"KIREKIREKIREKIREKIRE… C'mon, Romama-kun!... KIREKIREKIRE… Eh? What's wrong?"

All stopped as they saw something was indeed wrong; Romama remained silent even through their resonance.

"You don't have to be so shy, Romama Shosa!" Keroro reassured him. "GEROGEROGERO—"

"Teicho-dono, I don't think he can," Dororo interjected suddenly, and the group looked at one another, and then at Romama. Dororo's eyes met with Romama's, and the ninja continued, "…He hasn't been able to in years."

"Dororo? You understand him?" Keroro asked in amazement.

"The eyes are the key to the soul, Teicho-dono," Dororo answered.

"That's concerning," Giroro muttered.

"Kukuku! Why do you think I haven't switched to contacts? Teicho, I found a living relative to pawn him off on," Kururu announced, and Romama looked to Dororo.

"He… He wants to know whose idea it was to 'pawn him off' on someone," Dororo asked accenting the emphasis by using his fingers as parenthesis, and Giroro became outwardly nervous.

"Really now! Well, let's see this great warrior!" Keroro asked happily, hopping down from the podium to get a better look. Kururu flipped around his laptop, and everyone's blood froze, including Romama's.

"…No shit," Tamama said aloud, cutting the silence.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Ojisama's…. Ojisama….?" Mois held her hands up to her face, "I… I don't understand…"

Dororo looked over to Romama, whose mouth was twitching, and his eyes full of terror as he looked at Keroro, "….No words can express…."

"…Looks like the gene pool thinned," Giroro snorted.

"This is so cool, Ojisan! He's your little uncle!" Kirere chirped happily.  
"Aren't you lucky?!"

"I… I don't understand!" Mois ran out of the room in tears; it was too much to process for her.

Romama, too, looked puzzled. He looked at Keroro, who smiled, and waved weakly, "You… You sure have a lot of birthdays to make up for, Ojisama."

"Like hell I do, you clown," Dororo shot out, and all whipped their heads about to the embarrassed ninja. "I… I'm just interpreting, Keroro-kun!"

"C-clown!?" Keroro squeaked, and immediately went into self-defense. "Uncle or not, I won't stand for you coming in and mocking me in front of my platoon!"

"Some platoon," Dororo looked pained as he continued to speak for Romama. "The Keron army must've really lowered… Lowered their standards… Oh, dear…"

"Listen you little brat, I won't stand for this! You might have been a major, but that was a long time ago!" Keroro snapped. "And you couldn't have been that good if you got caught by a Pekoponian!"

"I… I got caught, too," Kirere squeaked weakly.

"So did he, kukuku!" Kururu chimed in. This went unnoticed.  
Dororo looked to Giroro "…You might want to…"

"Right," Giroro lifted up Kirere's headphones, and putted his hands over her ears. She didn't hear want Dororo said for Romama next, but there were also a few confusing gestures that went along with it. Tamama's face went bright red, and although Kirere couldn't see it, so did Giroro's. Dororo looked as though he wanted to escape.

As soon as the ninja finished interpreting, Keroro lunged for him. Dororo gave a surprisingly high-pitched yelp, and Tamama and Giroro went to work prying Keroro off of Dororo, all while Kururu laughed.

"K-Keroro-kun!" Dororo's eyes were watery, now, and he was on the verge of tears.

"Keroro! It's not him, it's Romama talking!" Giroro shouted as he and Tamama struggled to subdue the sergeant. Dororo hid behind a desk as he awaited Keroro's cooldown. Romama only stood there, looking coolly at the chaos.

Kirere hopped off of her seat, and walked over to Romama. She had with her a rolled up paper, which she had left from the previous meeting for drawing. Romama looked at her, puzzled, which only grew as she gave him a good whap in the center of the head. Giroro turned pale with horror, as did everyone else, save for Kururu.

"Don't be a jerk. We could've left you," she answered, and Romama said nothing to this, but watched as she hopped back in her seat.

"Kuku! Besides, I'm the residential jerk here," Kururu added with a laugh.

Romama looked down at the ground, then at Keroro. Keroro gave a yell, and clung onto Giroro for dear life as Romama approached them. The teal Keronian held out his hand, and Keroro flinched, opening his eyes gradually as he saw Romama wasn't going to attack. Instead, the major had his hand outstretched to Keroro.

"…Ehhhh?" Keroro ungripped himself from Giroro, and took hold of Romama's hand, and then shook it. Romama then took a step back, and saluted them after hesitating. They attempted to return this, but Romama shook his head, and walked over to Tamama, pointing to the private's symbol.

"You want to learn how to drive?" Keroro wondered aloud. "No…? You're a new driver?"

"He wants to be treated as a private," Dororo answered. The ninja had not moved from his secure spot behind the desk.

"Ah, that's fine, Romama Nitohei!" Keroro answered with a grin. "That's not a problem at all!"

"He… He added that that wasn't an invitation to refer to him as 'private'," Dororo answered flatly, and Keroro's smile fell.

"You really are difficult," Keroro muttered.

"Can I get back to showing him my room now?" Kirere asked hopefully.  
Dororo looked to Romama, who gave a nod and followed Kirere out, leaving the platoon alone.

"Let's find a relative to dump him on, Keroro! Let's find a relative! I'm soooo much smarter than you, Keroro, of course I'd know what to do!" Keroro shouted at Giroro, who growled in return.

"Like I even knew that would happen! How was I supposed to know there was more than one competent person in your family?!" Giroro snapped.

"…Hrm… Wait… He is quite competent… And if he's as good a fighter as the legends say…" Keroro thought for a moment, and Giroro's expression changed, now shocked.

"…Keroro! You're actually thinking!"

"Gero gero gero! I know, and it's scaring me!" Keroro laughed. "With dear Romama Ojisama on our side, we could become an invaluable force!"

"Teicho, I… Well… I don't think…." Dororo began, but was just as soon forgotten.

"That's a great idea, Gunso-san, even if your relative is incredibly creepy!" Tamama gasped.

"Yes! What good are relatives if you can't mooch off of them, after all?!" Keroro announced heartily.

So Giroro went to go find Romama while Keroro went to check on an in-crisis Mois, and while Tamama seethed in jealousy over this and Kururu and Dororo simply vanished.

"Kirere, I—" Giroro stopped at what he walked into. He just had to take a moment to take it all in.

Kirere had led Romama over to a corner where there was a small table and chairs, perfect for their size. It seemed as though Kirere had lured him into having a tea party. That wasn't what made Giroro pause, however. It was the fact that both were now both holding stuffed animals, and Romama had a purple scarf of Kirere's about his neck.

"Look, now he's not as spooky!" Kirere said with a grin. "Did you want to come have some tea, too?"

Giroro only silently shut the door once more.

"….That….? …That's our best bet for the invasion?" Giroro asked himself. "We… We're really screwed."

Eventually Romama came out, and was more than slightly worried as he found Keroro's personality completely switched. The sergeant greeted the now back to his scary self-looking Romama with a pat on the shoulder, and led him over to a seat in Keroro's bedroom. Tamama and Kururu were also there, as was Mois, who was still wiping her eyes.

"Make yourself comfy, Romama Ojisama!" Keroro took a seat opposite from Romama, who only grew more confused as Giroro handed him a juice box. "Drink up! One needs his energy…"

Romama sipped the juice box, all while looking straight ahead at Keroro. Keroro shivered a bit; those damn eyes….

"…." There was silence between the two, but Keroro kept his pleasant grin. The sergeant then clasped his hands together, and grinned, "We wanted to pose a proposition to you, Ojisama! One I'm sure you won't mind entertaining, considering it's from your nephew…"

"…He's begging to a child. Pathetic," Giroro grumbled and looked away from his exchange.

"Kuku! Expert negotiator, he's not," Kururu chuckled.

"…We were wondering how you felt about completing your mission," Keroro began, and Romama discontinued sipping from his juice box. "…And, in a way, helping us, as well… You see, our mission is Pekopon's takeover, and… With so many stories about you, it's hard to believe that they're indeed just stories! We were collectively hoping that you would join us in our cause!"

The plastic straw of the juice box thrown full force and landing stuck right in between Keroro's eyes was the answer. Romama then tossed aside the juice box, stood, and walked out calmly.

"You… You can't do that, you little brat!" Keroro huffed. "You can't just walk away!"

"Gunso-san, he just did just that…" Tamama muttered.

"…Enough of this," Giroro turned around and walked away from the group.

"Eh? Giroro? Where're you off to?" Keroro looked to Giroro, the straw still stuck in his head.

"I promised someone something…" Giroro answered, and with that left. "You idiots have fun sucking up to a bratty child, I have bigger things to attend to."

"What? He left?" Kirere was outwardly upset as Giroro explained this to her. She sat across from him, helping him polish and repair his weapons in the tent, while Neko sat and licked at the bandage around her front paw. In addition to this one, she had one going across her ribcage, where she had taken the major blow. Other than that, the cat was the same as ever, "Do you know if he'll be back?"

"Who knows… He's even more bratty and moody than Keroro, and I didn't think they could come worse… He reminds me a lot of Keroro when we were growing up… Aside from the not talking. That's one good thing about him," he answered, and set down the sniper rifle. "Did you have fun yesterday, with your Pekoponian friend?"

"Yeah, it was terrific! He's helping me repair some of the Nishizawa Group's jets, it's so much fun! I can walk around, and no one minds me, because they're all used to Tama-nii-chan, anyway."

"Nii-chan?" Giroro glanced up at her, and she looked a bit embarrassed.

"I just started calling him to get on his nerves, but… I don't know, it's kind of stuck," she answered. "…I fixed this one."

"Very good," Giroro took it and inspected it, then set it aside. "That one's jammed, as well."

Kirere nodded and took it, taking it apart, all while there was a concerned look upon her face. There was something off about that, Giroro knew; she almost always smiled while working at this sort of thing.

"…Do I have to beat up that idiot for you?" Giroro wondered aloud as he began to polish a dagger now, and Kirere shook her head.

"…Garuru Ojisan's really strong, and… If Kezanstav got away from him like that…"

"He wouldn't," Giroro interjected quickly. "I would have a hard time believing that anyone could defeat Garuru like that unless I saw them walking around myself."

"Are you saying he…?"

"I don't know. But I don't think Garuru would've been so nonchalant about a failure, unless he was already tracking him down. Don't worry about it. Besides, I won't let him take you again. He'd be too afraid to, he knows what we're capable of now," was Giroro's reply.

"Just focus on the invasion, right?" she laughed and her grin was just as soon back. "You're like a broken record…. Do you think they'll need Platoons to stay and watch Pekopon when we do take over?"

"I'm sure… Why do you ask?"

"Well, I think when I get a platoon, they're going to be the ones that stay and look after Pekopon," Kirere answered. "Fixed it!"

"Eh, here, work on polishing this," Giroro handed her a weapon now, with the safety on, of course. She nodded and did just this, and Giroro continued. "What do you mean your platoon?"

"I wanna be cool like you guys, and it'll help me stay on Pekopon… And I figure if you guys can make it, I should have no problem, either! I mean, you guys really aren't good at a lot, either, but you're really, really good at the one thing, at least, and it's gotten you pretty far!"

Giroro stopped polishing at this time, and blinked. She wasn't wrong, but… It wasn't exactly the best way to put things, either.

"W-well…" he slunk down, how was he to explain this?

He didn't have to. She just as quickly changed the subject, "I've got another question…."

"You have a lot of those today," he stood, and put down his knife. "Come on, it's getting dark out…"

"Are we going to make sweet potatoes?"

Giroro nodded, picking up a basket full of the yams and walking out to his firepit. Kirere took a seat on one of the cinder blocks, Neko hopping up and taking a seat next to her, rubbing up against her and watching as Giroro lit the fire, and then took a seat on another block.

"Now what did you want to ask? And if it's whether or not you can have a puppy…"

"No, not that again…" Kirere rubbed one of her shoulders, and looked away.

"You're not allowed to wear makeup yet…"

"What?! No fair!" she snapped, jerking her head around to him. "B-But it's not that, either! Although that isn't fair!"

"What is it, then?" Giroro poked at the fire, and Kirere huffed.

"I get to call everyone something… Except for Kuru-san and you. Do you think Kuru-san would mind if I called him something else?..." Kirere trailed off.

"I don't see why not," Giroro answered, glancing at her. "I call him enough."

"Really? Like what?"

"Ehhh… That isn't important," Giroro's face flushed a bit at the thought of loosely-strung together curses he often slung at Kururu.

"Well, can I call you something else, too?" Kirere ventured off.

"What did you have in mind?" Giroro stuck a sweet potato on a stick and laid it over the fire, and Kirere fidgeted.

"I… I thought about calling Kuru-san 'Papa' and you 'Dad'…" she answered, and Giroro stopped.

"…That'd be fine," Giroro nodded, and Kirere breathed a sigh of relief.

"…So should I start calling Natsumi 'Mom' now?"

"W-WHAT?! A-absolutely NOT!" Giroro fell back, his sweet potato nearly falling into the blaze. "She's just 'Natsumi' to you, all right?!"

"Hrm?" the Pekopon girl slid open the door just in time to see a redder-than-usual faced Giroro and a chuckling Kirere. "What're you two doing out here? I heard a lot of noise."

Giroro was still reeling, and Kirere turned around to Natsumi, "We were making sweet potatoes."

"Well, it's always good to see you guys bonding over something that isn't weapons for a change," Natsumi walked over to them, her hands on her hips. "Are you making enough for me?"

"Yeah!" Kirere smiled and nodded. "I can put some curry powder on yours, too, if you want!"

"Hehe, I'll take mine regular, thanks," Natsumi laughed well-meaningly, and knelt down in between the two. Kirere smirked at Giroro, and his cheeks went red. He really was wrapped around the finger of both women, he mused to himself.

"It'll be a little while yet," Giroro announced, turning over the stick with the sweet potatoes.

It wasn't such a bad place to be, he concluded.

Dororo got a good laugh from his perch, as he stood on the telephone line and watched the two seated at the fire, Natsumi between them. It was evening, now, and the sky was almost completely orange.

He wasn't the only person watching them, he realized after a moment. He hopped from his perch, to a lower on, a nearby house rooftop, where Romama Shosa sat, a bag tied onto a stick on his side, the stick being a bokken sword, Dororo realized after a moment, and an instrument on his lap, which Dororo recognized as a mandolin.

"So I take it that our leader's words did nothing for you," Dororo surmised. Romama answered this by looking briefly up at Dororo, then turning his attention back to tuning his instrument. "…It is a lot to take in, Pekopon has changed a lot for you, I'm sure…. If you are in need of a place to stay, or friendship, we'll welcome you, even if it's not as a member. You're simply a fellow soldier in need."

Romama's eyes met with Dororo's, and Dororo nodded in understanding, "I see your reasoning. But no man is an island. So where are you going to go now?"

Romama lifted up his instrument and bag, and glanced at Dororo before hopping off of the roof and disappearing, "I see. Well, the best of luck to you, Romama Shosa."

Dororo then turned his attention back to the Hinatas' back yard, being drawn to it by the sound of Kirere's laughter. Something had been said that had embarrassed Giroro, clearly, and the corporal's face was bright red, and his mouth moving too quickly to form proper words, all while Kirere giggled.

"May you never lose that happiness again, Kirere-chan," Dororo said to himself, and then he was off, as well, leaving father and daughter to themselves.


	17. Afterward

Afterward:

Kururu flipped through the book on his lap, a bit bored but still glancing over the pages of ancient Keronian text.

The Romama Platoon. He hadn't found much on them, aside from an ancient drawing or two and their names. Romama Shosa, platoon leader. Mahihi Chui, the weapons expert. Then there was Fujuju Soucho, who shared Kururu's same position within the platoon. There was Lupapa Goucho, who had been a thief and assassin-for-hire but had been reassigned to act as bodyguard for the platoon. Then there was Chunini Gunso, who was a combat expert. The last member of the platoon had been the pilot, and also the lowest, class-wise, Kodada Nitohei.

"Tch," he was bored by the names, and the little piece of information he'd been given. It had been such a while, though, so he was lucky to have even this. He tossed aside the dusty book out of his own boredom.

"Ow… Hot, hot!" he heard in a familiar small tone, and tossed aside the book as Kirere rushed in, two sweet potatoes wrapped in newspaper in her hands. "Here, I brought you one! What're you doing?"

"Kuku, I suppose if there's nothing else to eat," Kururu took the sweet potato and unwrapped it.

"I already put some curry powder on it!" she announced proudly, and took a seat at his chair, and dug into her own sweet potato. "Mm, perfect!"

"Kuku, don't talk with your mouth full," Kururu said through his own mouthful, and worked with his free hand on his keyboard while he held the sweet potato in his other.

Kirere scooted over, opening the book and flipping through the pages, "So… You understand all of this?"

"Kuku, yes, but it's not really useful," Kururu answered.

"Hey, that's Romama-san!" Kirere now held the book in her lap, and pointed to the hieroglyphic-looking picture of six Keronians standing in a row. "…And everyone else he knew…. He's got to be so lonely now."

"We all have our issues, kukuku!" Kururu answered, taking another bite of the sweet potato. "….I can feel your eyes."

"Do you like having me around? Is that why you came, too, when I got caught? Do you care about me?"

"Kuku! Well, there was a lot of work done on your project. You keep things… Interesting, kukukuku!"

"So is there anything that makes you happy?"

"Kuku, what's to gain from being an optimistic all the time?"

"Yeah… Well, I got something that might make you happy!" she lit up.  
Kururu brushed this off, "You built another piece of junk?"

He then heard a jingling, and his blood froze, "Nope!" she answered brightly. "I filled my hug jar again!"

Even Giroro jerked his head up from where he had been staring into his fire as he heard the scream that followed.

The end


End file.
